Allen May Quit Post if Unable to Finance Fight

Facing a mushrooming recall campaign, Assembly Speaker Doris Allen said Monday she will consider stepping down this week from the lower house’s top post if she cannot secure commitments for the cash she would need to fight off the effort to oust her.

But the embattled Republican from Cypress, who has been under attack from GOP colleagues since she was elevated to the speakership by a bloc of Democrats, said she was ready to wage war with her opponents if she can collect the money to compete fairly.

“Without the money, who knows?” Allen asked late Monday. “I’ve taken a real beating for a long time.”

Allen was weighing her options as her foes Monday turned in the last of the more than 26,000 signatures they have collected to qualify the recall for the ballot. If a sufficient number are validated, the election could occur as soon as late November.

To defeat the effort, Allen said, she would need more than $300,000 initially, and much more as Election Day drew nearer. Allen has held several fund-raisers in recent weeks but remains well short of her initial goal.

Even as she pondered her future, Allen took several shots at the state Republican Party, which has endorsed the recall, and Assembly colleagues who have helped champion the cause.

She described recall proponents as “a bunch of jerks” and joked that Republican Party leaders “are not at the top of my dance card.”

“Do I let a group of power-mongering men with short penises tell me what to do?” Allen asked. “Well, I don’t know. What am I supposed to do?

“These men have a real problem,” Allen added. “They can’t be doing it from logic and truth. Logic and truth don’t dictate a recall. Certainly not from the party. So what else can it be? They can’t help it if they were born with shortcomings.”

Allen said she planned to talk with top Democrats about her options. If she decides to step down from the Speaker’s post, Allen said, she will do so by the end of this week so a successor can be named before the Legislature adjourns for the year Friday.

Stepping down from the speakership, Allen said, is “a possibility. I’m not going to tell you I would. You’ve got to make that decision and feel good about it. And I have got to do some thinking. I really have to do some thinking about what I . . . can do.

“Once I get at peace with that myself, then fine. . . . But I really haven’t made that decision,” she added. “It’s something I have to live with, something I have to determine based on the facts out there.”

Assemblyman Jim Morrissey (R-Santa Ana), who has endorsed the Allen recall along with every other member of the Orange County delegation, shrugged off the insults and hurled them back at the Speaker.

“She’s incompetent,” Morrissey said. “She’s lazy and not particularly brilliant.”

In Orange County, meanwhile, an enthusiastic contingent of anti-Allen volunteers, led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), turned in a final batch of recall petitions to the county registrar of voters Monday morning. At least 25,606 signatures are needed to force a recall.

“It feels great, but there is also the feeling there is a big job ahead,” said Jeff Flint, coordinator of the Committee to Recall Doris Allen, which gathered the required signatures in 76 days. The group spent $125,000, $50,000 of it supplied by the Lincoln Club, an organization of influential Orange County conservatives. The state GOP also endorsed the recall.

The committee’s goal is to force Allen, the Assembly’s first female Speaker, out of office before the Legislature reconvenes in January and replace her with a “true Republican,” said Flint, who is on leave from his job as chief of staff for Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

Allan Hoffenblum, Allen’s consultant on the recall, questioned how a bankrupt county could afford to spend $140,000 for a special election.

“Where is the money going to come from?” Hoffenblum asked. “Are they going to appropriate the money to fulfill the egos of some politicians at the same time they are laying off employees because they have no money to pay for them?”

The recall was launched in June, shortly after Allen was elected to the Assembly’s top post with 39 Democratic votes plus her own. The development led to charges that she had betrayed her party and was being manipulated by outgoing Democratic Speaker Willie Brown.

Allen contends that she has helped put Republicans by giving them powerful committee posts.

County Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever said she expects to tally and validate the signatures by Friday. If a sufficient number of valid signatures has been turned in, Gov. Pete Wilson must call an election to be held 60 to 80 days after the registrar’s official announcement.

The same ballot would include a special election to fill Allen’s seat in the event she is recalled. Allen has previously estimated she would spend $500,000 to $1 million to fight the recall. Her opponents have declined to predict how much they would put into the effort.

The recall proponents turned in 2,155 signatures Monday, adding to the total of 23,994 signatures previously validated by the registrar. Flint said the committee would continue to turn in signatures throughout the week “as they trickle in.”

* BANKRUPTCY PLAN: Most of Speaker Allen’s concerns appear to melt away. A16

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Countdown to Recall?

As Assembly Speaker Doris Allen said she was considering stepping down from the lower house’s top post, her opponents said Monday they have gathered enough signatures to request a recall election. Here are the next steps:

* Announcement expected from registrar of voters Friday on validity of recall petitions.

* If petitions valid, California secretary of state’s office notifies Gov. Pete Wilson, who sets election date not less than 60 days nor more than 80 days thereafter.

* Candidates file for Allen’s Assembly seat.

* Recall election and replacement election are held simultaneously.

* If recall succeeds, winner of replacement election takes Allen’s Assembly seat.

Source: Orange County registrar of voters