Davis Recall Bid Has Supporters and Doubters at GOP Convention

Hundreds of California Republican Party activists on Saturday rallied behind the campaign to recall Gov. Gray Davis as a small but growing faction of the state GOP questioned the wisdom of the idea.

The nascent move to try to oust the Democratic governor in a special election became a centerpiece of the state Republican convention here as a few hundred delegates and other Davis foes held a demonstration outside the Capitol to show support for a recall.

After losing every statewide race in November, the Republicans are trying to regroup for their 2004 campaigns to reelect President Bush, toss Sen. Barbara Boxer out of office and narrow the Democrats’ majority in the Legislature. But the partisan fervor of the GOP rank and file was most visible in the renewed effort to bounce Davis.

State party Chairman Shawn Steel, Republican legislators and others made their case from the Capitol steps after joining in the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer.

“Conditions in our state have become intolerable and can no longer be ignored,” shouted state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks. He called Davis more “corrupt and incompetent” than the crooked politicians whose misdeeds led to the government reforms of the Progressive Era.

“We are tired of seeing our earnings taken from us and handed out to all the governor’s campaign contributors,” he said, alluding to accusations that Davis has traded state favors for campaign cash.

In many ways, the rally echoed the failed campaign of Republican Bill Simon Jr. to unseat Davis in the election last November. Behind the stage was a banner saying “Fire Gray Davis,” the slogan displayed on Simon’s campaign bus. The crowd chanted “Dump Davis,” a favorite from Simon campaign rallies. Just off stage was Simon strategist Sal Russo, now an advisor to the recall organizers, and two other Simon campaign operatives.

Speakers at the rally borrowed Simon’s main campaign theme: They accused Davis of mishandling the energy crisis and the state budget. Among the speakers were two of the Northern California conservative radio talk show hosts who often gave Simon a friendly media forum during the campaign.

Today, the roughly 1,400 delegates to the convention, being held at a hotel and a nearby civic hall, are likely to pass a resolution supporting the recall, said GOP spokesman Rob Stutzman. Nonetheless, signs of caution have emerged among elected officials and other Republicans at the gathering of party loyalists from around the state.

Assembly Republican Leader Dave Cox of Fair Oaks urged the party not to spend any of its scarce resources on a recall. He said the effort could distract the Legislature from its negotiations with Davis to resolve the state’s fiscal crisis, and that no revelations have emerged since the election to justify a recall.

State Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga stopped well short of embracing a recall: He refused to talk about it.

State Sen. Bruce McPherson (R-Santa Cruz) was openly wary. “I don’t know if the state needs it right now,” he said.

Conservative activist K.B. Forbes warned that a recall could spark the same kind of public backlash against Republicans that occurred after President Clinton’s impeachment.

“You may build up enthusiasm among the base of the party, but with mainstream voters, Democrats and independents, it will hurt,” he said.

Former Secretary of State Bill Jones, who lost his bid last year for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, declined to take a stand on whether Davis should be recalled. But he urged Republicans to unite behind one candidate to replace Davis if a recall should get on the ballot, and Jones left little doubt whom he had in mind: “If the party wanted me to do it, I would certainly entertain it,” he said.

The recall effort could soon sputter into nothing if organizers fail to raise the $2 million or more that experts say they need to pay for a petition drive to get it on the ballot. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), a multimillionaire who has voiced interest privately in running for governor, said Saturday that he would not help finance the petition effort, but did not rule out a bid to replace Davis in a recall.

To qualify for a special election, recall supporters would have to gather nearly 900,000 signatures within 160 days. Similar efforts against every California governor since Pat Brown in 1960 have failed to make the ballot.

Still, the Davis recall movement has whipped up excitement among ground troops of a GOP dispirited by its string of election losses. Recall bumper stickers were a popular freebie at the convention. Some delegates wore recall T-shirts; emblazoned across the chest was: “We must act now! For California’s Future!”

“Take him out!” Republican Mike Dugas of Davis shouted from the crowd at the rally. “Dethrone him! Throw him in jail!”

Signs on display at the rally, however, suggested that the initial base of support is firmly within the right wing of the GOP. Among them: “Just Say ‘No’ to Socialism!” “Stop the Gays/Davis War on Marriage” and “We Trust God! Not Davis.” El Dorado County Republican Pieter Friedrich carried a sign reading, “Abortion Kills Children.”

“Davis has totally messed up the state,” he said.

Recall supporters fear the effort to oust Davis will fail if it looks like a Republican campaign. They made a point of having Libertarian and other minor-party leaders speak at the rally. But no Democrat has joined the recall campaign.

“There are a lot of angry Democrats out there,” Douglas Lorenz, chairman of the National Republican Liberty Caucus, told the crowd. “Just find them!”

One Democrat who watched the rally with a smirk was Davis spokesman Roger Salazar. “All this is,” he said, “is a bunch of sore losers who can’t stomach the fact that they lost fair and square in the last election.”

In Washington on Saturday, Davis got a vote of support from his party peers in the form of a resolution passed by the Democratic National Committee, which condemned the recall effort as the work of “a handful of right-wing politicians who are attempting to overturn” the November election.

The resolution, passed unanimously at the Democrats’ annual winter meeting, said the recall would worsen California’s fiscal condition and asserted Republicans were placing “vindictive politics above public interest” in a “cynical, arrogant grab for power.” It was sponsored by Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party.

*

Times staff writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.