Recall Backers Sue Calif. Secretary of State Over Signature Count
Thursday, July 10, 2003
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One of the Republican groups trying to oust Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (search) sued the secretary of state Thursday, accusing him of trying to delay a special recall election.
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The lawsuit by The Recall Gray Davis Committee (search) asks a judge to order Secretary of State Kevin Shelley -- a Democrat -- to have counties verify signatures as they get them, rather than waiting from month to month as Shelley has told them they can do.
"I think he's trying to find any angle he can to delay the certification," the committee's Sal Russo said.
A spokesman for Shelley said his office had not yet reviewed the suit.
"The only thing I would say is that the secretary of state has confidence that his decisions will be upheld by the courts," said the spokesman, Doug Stone.
The lawsuit was filed over the objections of the two other recall committees, which have done the bulk of the work in turning in more than 1.3 million signatures to counties. Proponents believe that will be more than enough to reach the 897,158 valid signatures needed to qualify the recall.
They are hoping for a special election this fall, but a legal battle could delay it until 2004. Attorneys for Davis and the pro-Davis group Taxpayers Against the Recall are examining legal options to challenge the process.
The lawsuit also names five California counties -- Sacramento, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Solano and Tehama.
Recall backers filing Thursday's lawsuit believe the state's largely untested recall law requires county clerks to maintain a continuous count of valid signatures. Shelley, however, indicated in a memo to counties June 30 that signatures received during one 30-day reporting period did not have to be validated until the next.
Shawn Callahan, a spokesman for the Recall Gray Davis Committee, said that Santa Barbara County agreed to cooperate after the lawsuit was drafted and that committee attorneys would seek Friday to dismiss it from the suit. Phones rang unanswered after hours at Sacramento, Solano and Tehama county offices, and a message left at the San Mateo County elections division was not immediately returned.
The recall ballot would pose two questions. Voters would vote yes or no on recalling Davis, and then would choose from a menu of candidates to replace him. Davis' name would not be on that list.
If the recall succeeded, whichever candidate got the most votes would immediately become governor.
So far, the only declared Republican candidate is U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a conservative who spent $1.5 million of his car alarm fortune to bankroll Rescue California.
Other potential GOP contenders are businessman Bill Simon, state Sen. Tom McClintock, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan (search).
In plotting strategy, state Republicans said they are assuming there will be Democrats on the ballot.
The state's leading Democrats have said they are united behind Davis and do not intend to run, but strategists from both parties predict that if polls show Davis losing the recall, one or more Democrats will get on the ballot.
URL:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,91618,00.html |
