GOP Faction Breaks Away to Sue for Speedier Recall Count

A small faction of Republicans pushing to recall Gov. Gray Davis broke from the main groups behind the effort Thursday and filed a lawsuit seeking court intervention to speed up the counting of signatures on the petition for a special election.

The suit filed by former GOP Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian of San Diego County and his allies angered the Republicans who have led the petition drive; they said they fear the legal action could backfire and stall the calling of an election.

But Kaloogian and his allies said they went to court in pursuit of goals they share with other recall supporters: a quick signature count and an election as soon as possible.

“We have an honest disagreement as to tactics involved,” Kaloogian said.

The suit was filed in the state’s 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento against Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, a Democrat whose job includes oversight of statewide elections, and the chief election officers of Sacramento, Santa Barbara, San Mateo, Solano and Tehama counties.

The core issue in the case is how quickly the county officials must verify whether those who signed the petitions are registered voters.

Politically, the speed of the signature verification is important because it will dictate the date of the election. Generally, recall supporters are pushing for quick verification to ensure a special election in the fall while allies of the Democratic governor hope the process will unfold slowly enough to push it to March, when the presidential primary is apt to draw a heavy Democrats turnout at the polls.

In the lawsuit, Kaloogian and the Recall Gray Davis Committee that he heads are seeking a court order to force the secretary of state to “maintain a continuous count” of valid petition signatures and make the number public on request.

It also seeks to overturn an order by Shelley detailing how counties must report their tallies to him. Specifically, it challenges the part of the order that would allow counties to wait as late as Aug. 22 to report to him the number of verified voter signatures submitted in the 30 days ending July 16.

The suit says it would cause irreparable injury to recall sponsors if the court did not order Shelley to meet legal mandates for a speedier count.

Assistant Secretary of State Terri Carbaugh said Shelley and his legal advisors had not seen the lawsuit, but added: “We stand by our signature verification process and we believe we’ll prevail in a court of law.”

Kaloogian and his chief strategist, Sal Russo, have been two of the most outspoken recall supporters in the news media. But they have played a minor role in the gathering of petition signatures.

The leading recall group is Rescue California, which used more than $1.5 million in donations from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) to pay petition circulators. According to Dave Gilliard, the group’s director, Rescue California collected 1.3 million of the nearly 1.5 million signatures gathered by the anti-Davis forces. It takes 897,158 to qualify the recall for the ballot, and the extras are to account for signatures likely to be deemed invalid.

Gilliard and Ted Costa, the official sponsor of the recall petition, urged Kaloogian and Russo not to sue, arguing that nearly every county in the state was opting voluntarily to verify signatures fast enough to guarantee a fall election.

“A lawsuit right now is nothing but a cheap publicity stunt,” Gilliard said a few hours before it was filed.

He added later: “We’re very, very afraid that it could be counterproductive in getting these signatures counted in a timely manner and possibly cause us to have a March election.”

Costa voiced similar concerns, and tried to persuade Kaloogian’s lawyers not to sue.

Kaloogian and Russo insisted that the suit was not a quest for publicity.

“We’re standing up for the rights of the voters who support the recall to be counted,” Russo said.

Although the lawsuit names five counties, Russo said Santa Barbara and San Mateo would be dropped from the case immediately because election officials have agreed to accommodate their concerns.

According to a Los Angeles Times survey of the county registrars conducted Tuesday, the remaining three counties had received 62,000 signatures.

Times staff writer Joe Mathews contributed to this report.