Recall drive passes through Costa Mesa

Paul Clinton

The campaign to recall Gov. Gray Davis, which has gathered steam in

the past few weeks, pulled into Costa Mesa on Saturday.

Local Republican organizers gathered about 350 signatures at Costa

Mesa’s Target Greatland in about an hour, Jim Bieber said.

Bieber, president of the Costa Mesa Republican Assembly, roped in

about 20 volunteers to circulate recall petitions, but said

volunteers didn’t need to offer much of a sales pitch.

“There wasn’t a partisan feel to it,” Bieber said. “They saw the

signs and they were making a beeline to sign.”

Groups mounting the Davis recall effort, which is being led by

People’s Advocate Director Ted Costa and others, need to collect

about 900,000 valid signatures by the end of July to place a recall

vote on the November ballot. The group has said it would try to

collect 1.2 million names.

Along with the recall, a string of replacement gubernatorial

candidates have lined up to place their names on the same ballot.

Candidates include Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and state Sen. Tom

McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks).

Costa Mesa’s Assemblyman Ken Maddox, also a co-chairman of the

Davis Recall Committee of Orange County, attended the recall event.

“He is universally reviled,” Maddox said. “They recognize that

it’s time to pick a new captain. This ship called California is

heading toward an iceberg.”

Maddox blamed Davis for “a complete lack of leadership” on the

state’s budget overruns, energy crisis and economic malaise.

Issa is hosting a Republican Party dinner on Saturday at the

Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa that should draw a who’s who

list, including former gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon, Rep. Chris

Cox, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Newport Beach GOP fund-raiser John

Crean.

Silva throws backing behind Maddox

Supervisor Jim Silva lent his support to Maddox in the 35th

District state Senate race against Assemblyman John Campbell.

“Ken is unquestionably a solid fiscal conservative,” Silva said.

“Ken has made a career of fighting the excesses of government and

businesses throughout Orange County can count on him to continue to

fight against increased regulation and higher taxes.”

The two lawmakers have seen eye-to-eye on issues such as the

eliminating urban bacterial pollution off the beaches, veterans

causes and others, Maddox said.

“We just have a long history of community involvement in the

Newport Beach area,” Maddox said.

El Toro politics gets political

Orange County Chairman Tom Wilson wants a regional planning group

to dump colleague Chuck Smith from its board.

Wilson, on Monday, submitted a formal request to the Board of

Supervisors to consider dumping Smith from the Southern California

Assn. of Governments at its June 17 meeting.

Wilson, who represents Newport Coast, proposed replacing Smith

with Supervisor Chris Norby.

Smith has been an avid proponent of an airport at the El Toro

Marine Corps Air Station, which county voters rejected in March 2002

when they approved Measure W. In the past week, word that L.A.

airport officials have been pushing to resurrect an airport for El

Toro became public.

Wilson said the Los Angeles plan is an encroachment on Orange

County decision-making.

“Local control was the motivation for county-hood more than 100

years ago, and that motivation must continue to be the lynch pin of

out philosophy in 2003,” Wilson said in a statement. “Given recent

statements attributed to Supervisor Chuck Smith regarding the [Los

Angeles] proposal for El Toro, which demonstrate a blatant disregard

for self-determination, I must turn to my board and ask they join me

in replacing [Smith].”