They are comparing the number of times that recall efforts were LAUNCHED to the number of times the official was voted out of office. The critical question is, how many times has a petition effort SUCCEEDED in placing the question on the ballot, to the number of times that the voters chose to remove the official from office.
The history of citizen action in California shows that most such efforts (usually on issues, not recalls) fail in the signature-gathering process. They don't get enough valid signatures to earn the right to be voted on. Four successes out of 118 tries looks like impossible odds. But if that is 4 successes in, say, eight recall elections, it looks quite different.
Recall is a two-stage process. If Davis is as generally disliked in California, as Perot was (initially) liked in the nation in 1992, the result of the first stage can be predicted. People turned out in droves to work for Perot and sign his petitions. All his petition drives succeeded overwhelmingly, filing more than twice the needed signatures in less than the required time.
If Davis has a corresponding level of unpopularity, the petition drive will succeed quickly and the only issue will be the likelihood of the voters deciding to dump Davis.
Congressman Billybob
Click for latest column, "Those in Peril on the Sea," also up on FR and UPI.
What I think is intersting is to see articles like today's Sacramento Bee where DEMOCRATS in California say they are not only dismissing the recall effort, but they are THINKING OF JOINING IT!
That to me speaks volumes as to the potential danger the Democrats see Davis in and how they are watching to see how much steam the recall movement generates!
My guess is that political observers of all parties in the state will continue to keep a close eye on the progress of the recall effort and so far there seems to be a gruding admittance that this effort might have more prospects for succeeding compared to any other previous recall effort!
Stay tuned! And in the interim keep signing up, request petitions and send in contributions! This effort will be expensive and Davis is a master of raising money so it will take vast sums to compete with him in the dollars race.
One final word! Petitions are NOT available yet - the Secretary of State could try to delay approval of the process by as much as a couple weeks. The earliest the petitions could be ready would be about February 20th.
So this gives us time to organize and prepare.
Go to the website, sign up, and get people you know who are also disgusted with Davis to sign up!
For freedom and our future!