Governor elected in recall now the target of one
Kevin Yamamura
Staff Writer - Sacramento Bee
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The correctional officers union announced plans Monday to recall Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it was difficult to avoid comparisons to the historic election that swept him into office nearly five years ago.
Still, California appears a long way from ousting another governor.
Interest groups and frustrated citizens for nearly a century have threatened California governors with removal, but their efforts ended in a special election only once, in 2003. Schwarzenegger is the seventh consecutive California governor to face a recall threat, and this marks the fourth one against him.
It is, however, the first from a group as well-financed as the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has spent more than $17 million on political campaigns since 2005.
"If you spend enough money, you could probably find enough people to sign petitions for a recall," said Sal Russo, a GOP consultant who worked on the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis and dismissed the latest attempt.
"But what we've found is that to recall a governor, people need a reason beyond just disagreeing or being unhappy with his performance in office."
He said voters distrusted and disliked Davis in a way that differs from how they feel about Schwarzenegger.
The guards union has fought with Schwarzenegger over prison policies, and it has worked without a long-term contract since 2006. Lance Corcoran, a union spokesman, said Monday that his group is collecting 65 valid signatures to serve Schwarzenegger a notice-of-intent-to-recall. That would set off procedures culminating in a 160-day statewide signature-gathering drive. During that time, CCPOA would have to obtain 1,041,530 valid signatures to qualify the recall.
Political strategists said the recall effort is only as serious as the amount of money the union pumps into it. The leading 2003 signature-gathering committee, Rescue California, spent more than $3.6 million.
"We are 100 percent committed, and we've never been shy about investing in our commitments," Corcoran said.
California will set a record this year for the longest budget impasse; the state is now in the 71st day of its 2008-09 fiscal year without a spending plan.
Schwarzenegger faces the lowest approval ratings of his second term. A Public Policy Institute of California poll last month showed 52 percent of likely voters disapprove of his performance, compared with 43 percent who approve.
Those numbers are not as dismal as Davis' in early 2003, when the Democrat faced a record budget deficit. A Field Poll in April of that year found that 65 percent of voters disapproved of Davis, compared with only 24 percent who approved.
Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles, questioned the union's chances of pulling off a successful recall.
"Davis was far more vulnerable," Regalado said. "It seemed like he was blamed for every bad thing: the budgetary impasses, the record deficits and the paralytic style of government in Sacramento."
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