The Note

W A S H I N G T O N August 4—
, 2003 -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

—11:00 am: Congressman Dick Gephardt delivers an economic policy address to business leaders, New York City—11:30 am: Congressman Dennis Kucinich meets with the board of the League of Conservation Voters, Los Angeles—12:30 pm: Reverend Al Sharpton holds press conference with the family of slain artisan Ousmane Zongo to announce a lawsuit against New York City immediately following a meeting with N.Y.C. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, One Police Plaza—12:30 pm: Senator John Edwards meets with supporters, Tulsa, Okla.—12:30 pm: Senator Joe Lieberman speaks at the National Press Club's Newsmakers Luncheon, D.C.—2:15 pm: Senator John Kerry meets with local AFSCME members to discuss overtime pay, Des Moines—2:35 pm: Vice President Cheney attends a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser, Salt Lake City—3:30 pm: Congressman Dennis Kucinich holds an open forum at the Animal Rights 2003 Conference, Los Angeles—3:30 pm Senator John Edwards speaks to the Transport Workers Union of America, Tulsa, Okla.—4:15 pm: Senator John Kerry meets with Cass County Democrats, Atlantic, Iowa—5:30 pm: Vice President Cheney attends a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser, Sun Valley, Idaho (CLOSED)—6:00 pm: Senator Joe Lieberman attends a fundraiser, Dearborn, Mich.—6:30 pm: Senator John Edwards holds a town hall meeting, Wilmington, N.C.

NEWS SUMMARY

Political reporters are like Arlington mothers: they like to plan every hour, every day, every week, just as definitively as they can.

With the President pretty fixed on the ranch, he's unlikely to dominate our week.

So who does that leave for us to focus on, plan around, obsess over?

Davis, Riordan, Feinstein, and some California judges/justices have a real shot at it.

As do Dean, Gephardt, and, if the speech today is super-boffo, Joe Lieberman.

Oh, and the CW (backed by a bit 'o reporting) is correct: if you are a betting type, bet on Joe Biden AND Wes Clark to get into this race before you see your first episode of "K Street."

So, get ready for what will be anything but a slow week (and month) despite what the wall calendar says.

In recall news:

-- Governor Davis is sending his legal eagles to California State Supreme Court today to file a suit aimed at postponing the recall election until March 2, 2004 (when, according to odds makers, his chances are much improved) and getting his name included as a replacement candidate on the ballot.

-- The governor's lawsuit is one of many before the state Supreme Court. See below for a listing of what other recall matters are before the court.

-- Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has become the fourth Democratic member of the congressional delegation to express concern over Gray Davis being the only Democrat on the ballot.

-- Arnold Schwarzenegger will appear with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show this Wednesday to explain his decision (whatever that may be) concerning a candidacy.

-- But first, Jay Leno will host Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton this evening on The Tonight Show. All will be listening for supportive words of Gray Davis.

-- And one eye remains focused on Richard Riordan's assembling a campaign team, while the other eye is trained on Dianne Feinstein... at least until Saturday at 8:00 pm ET.

The President is ranchin' today.

Vice President Cheney is scheduled to attend a luncheon fundraiser in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Grand America Hotel -- open to press. He heads to another fundraiser later today, a dinner in Sun Valley, Idaho, which is closed.

The AFL-CIO Working Families Forum in Chicago takes place tomorrow and all nine Democrats are set to take part. And it appears they will be awfully busy before they get there.

Senator Kerry campaigns in Iowa today. He heads to Minneapolis tomorrow to campaign before heading to Chicago for the forum. He campaigns in New Hampshire Wednesday through Friday.

Senator Edwards campaigns in Tulsa, Oklahoma today, lunching with supporters and speaking to the Transport Workers Union of America. Tonight, he heads back home to the Tar Heel State for a town hall meeting in Wilmington.

He's set to hold two more town hall meetings in North Carolina this week: he'll be in Charlotte on Tuesday and in Greensboro on Wednesday. He also campaigns in New Hampshire on Wednesday.

In advance of Tuesday's AFL-CIO forum, Congressman Gephardt is scheduled today to deliver a speech pitched by the campaign as a major address on the economy, complete with proposals to spur economic growth. The address will be at a gathering of the metro New York Chambers of Commerce in Greenwich Village.

Senator Joe Lieberman is set to lay out a vision for the future of both the Democratic Party and the country at the National Press Club this afternoon. Tomorrow, he'll tour a steel factory in Aurora, Illinois with Representative Bill Lipinski before heading to the AFL-CIO forum in Chicago. "Joe's Jobs Tour" touches down in Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday.

Congressman Kucinich campaigns in southern California today, meeting with the League of Conservation Voters, a women's group, and animal rights activists. He holds a lunch fundraiser in Aurora, Illinois tomorrow before heading to the AFL-CIO forum.

Governor Dean has no public events scheduled for today, but he'll be campaigning in Chicago tomorrow and in Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday.

Senator Graham has no public events scheduled for today, but he'll also be in Chicago tomorrow. He kicks of the "Family Vacation" bus trip in Iowa on Wednesday at the Iowa State Fair. The Note hopes the campaign will behave itself in the backseat and not force the Senator to pull over.

Reverend Sharpton will meet with New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at noon today. Afterwards, he will hold a press conference at One Police Plaza with the family of slain artisan Ousmane Zongo to announce the filing of a lawsuit against New York City.

Sharpton will be at the AFL-CIO forum tomorrow and he takes his turn on Senator Harkin's "Hear it from the Heartland" forum Wednesday night in Sioux City.

Ambassador Braun will be at the AFL-CIO forum on Tuesday, and she has no other announced public events for the week.

The SEIU plans to start a series of television ads today in Iowa and New Hampshire focusing on health care.

Guess who's in California today? Senator Hillary Clinton has a book signing in San Diego today. Later on, she'll appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Note is pretty sure she will not declare her candidacy for the governor's office in the Golden State.

The Mississippi gubernatorial primaries take place Tuesday.

On Wednesday, there will be too big announcements about potential candidacies: Jerry Springer's in Columbus, Ohio, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's in Burbank, California.

MOST IMPORTANT WEEKEND STORIES:

1. Pegged to absolutely nothing (and containing next to no news), this weekend brought the fourth wave of the Dean press boom (after Wave 1 -- Broder's prescient column; Wave 2 -- the Iraq war surge; and Wave 3 -- the second-quarter fundraising realization), and Wave 4 included:

Cover packages in Time LINK and The Man LINK (Who IS that cute guy drinking coffee?) and Newsweek LINK and the interview LINK and the spouse profile LINK ; a Roger Simon profile LINK (Make sure you read to the end to find some actual news regarding Dean's current pledge to keep his delegates all the way to Boston…) and interview LINK ; and a glowing front-page story about his Vermont gubernatorial days in Sunday's Washington Post LINK.

The only way in which all of these stories differed from how they would have been written if Trish Enright and Kate O'Connor had been asked to ghost write them is that the ladies would have felt obliged to show SOME restraint.

Suffice to say, the other campaigns will surely be asking the FEC to rule on the AOL/Zuckerman/Graham in-kind contribution question.

And the litigious side of The Note wonders if Newsweek will sue Time for the blatant ripoff of the Spy-magazine-style "Dean is like Bush" graphic. And WE might sue Time for malpractice for claiming in another graphic that Dean's success is good for Gephardt.

And the Des Moines Register poll showing Dean leading in Iowa only confirmed what all the holders of private polls have been whispering for weeks. LINK

Pity the Register story didn't mention Dean being the only one with paid TV, but, hey, a lead's a lead.

The David Yepsen write-up of the poll is even more painful for Gephardt. LINKDean campaign chief Joe Trippi, in one of his intense-yet-somehow-relaxed e-mails to supporters today breaks this news (in typical Dean campaign style, he lets supporters know before Fournier):

"As you know, we raised $508,000 during our recent Dean Team vs Bush-Cheney Challenge. A little over $100,000 of that was used to pay for the ads we are running in Texas. So what are we doing with the rest of it? Well, you are the first to know that thanks to you we will be the first campaign to go on the air in New Hampshire and Boston, starting tomorrow."

(Kudos to the Washington Post's Mike Allen, for getting Bush aides to point out that the ranch gets Waco stations, not Austin, where the Dean ad is running LINK, but kudos to Trippi for recognizing what an Austin ad might do to build support in Austin for the primary.)

(Want to read a negative Dean clip just for a change of pace? Check out John DiStaso's Sunday piece on Dean's fire fight with the firefighters of northern New England. LINK

2. Don't stop reading about Dean, though. Saturday's Glen Johnson Boston Globe story on the two camps within Team Kerry about how to deal with Dr. Dean is a flat-out Invisible Primary must-read. LINK

The story is so funny; it reads like The Onion.

3. As for Dick Gephardt, this weekend was not so good, even beyond the Register poll. First, the New York Times' Steven Greenhouse showed that Team Gephardt has lost at least some control over the expectations game and the historically-usual non-endorsement of the AFL. LINK

Then, the St. Louis Post Dispatch yesterday ran what is surely the worst the-supporters-a-campaign-lists-on-its-website-as-members-of-the-state-steering-committee-aren't-really-all-supporters-and-in-fact-in-some-cases-are-supporting-other-candidates story EVER.

Turns out, Congressman Gephardt's Iowa "team" ain't all on the team. A painful must-read. LINK

4. Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post went to New Hampshire on "Jon's Job Tour," and found the Bush Administration as aware as the Democrats running for president how key the loss of American manufacturing jobs is as a political issue. LINK

5. The Los Angeles Times' Janet Hook -- (nearly) the David Rogers of her gender -- had a weekend double header of Bushiness: Saturday, she did Republicans restive over the weak Bush-Cheney-Evans economy LINK; Sunday she did Republicans in Congress "defying" the President on a bunch of stuff LINK.

6. Other weekend stuff: Jim VandeHei in Sunday's Washington Post was lukewarm on John Edwards LINK; the New York Times' Nagourney and Elder wrote up a really huge Hispanic poll LINK

Most important newspaper stories of the day:

1. Blah, blah, blah: Secretary Powell MIGHT leave the Administration in over a year, and all Washington is atwiitter (Good thing the President is in Crawford; he HATES stories like this….) LINK

2. Balz and Edsall put Gephardt's AFL-CIO expectations a little bit more in kilter LINK, as does the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Deirdre Shesgreen LINK, and Dick Polman LINK.

(See also the Wall Street Journal story on Gephardt, the Democratic field, and trade on the eve of the Chicago meeting; Jimmy Hoffa's Washington Post op-ed on trade LINK; and Dan Hoover's Greenville News story on Gephardt LINK.)3. Robin Toner of the New York Times goes to Des Moines to find out that a lot of Democrats really don't like President Bush, and that has (sit down and hold on to your hat) helped Howard Dean; we would love to know how Robin got the phrase "moral clarity" into the paper. LINK

4. Robert Bartley's Wall Street Journal column perfectly captures a certain mindset, as he suggests that Senator Clinton run for president this cycle.

5. Elisabeth Bumiller, already sick of Crawford and thinking about the President's body fat, writes her White House Letter about the economy, after staking out a church. LINK

6. Mercer and Jack will breathe a sigh of relief after reading Mark Fineman's Los Angeles Times story about Pioneers and Rangers, because there is no code-breaking here (and the attempts to make fundraising seem evil are more lame than even usual), but shouldn't someone have sent Eric Tanenblatt the "no photos" memo? LINK

(And the State says POTUS is coming to Greenville to raise cash. LINK)

7. Ann Gerhart has some complicated Washington Post Style story about Dr. Dean being a doctor, that includes the first known reference to Joe Trippi's bowels. LINK

8. Bonus story for a certain category of Note reader only: how to eat at Galileo for $25/person. LINK

California recall:

Updating you on where we think things might go over the next 8 days is difficult, because it involves trying to figure out the likely actions of four of the most unpredictable entities in American life: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dick Riordan, the Democratic Party, and the courts.

Each of these will play a role in determining the likelihood that Gray Davis is recalled.

In short, here's what to look for over the next week or so:

1. Schwarzenegger: After telling numerous people that he wasn't going to make the race, Schwarzenneger now plans a Wednesday appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show" to speak to his decision. At this point it is unlikely that word will leak out before Wednesday, but he could put out a paper statement, have a press conference, or let the world know before he does the show -- or he could simply announce it there.

The Tonight Show publicist says taping will be at 7:30 p m ET.

There is speculation in some quarters that Arnold put out that he wasn't running as disinformation, and that he will shock the world with a (relatively) last-minute entry. Our sources continue to say that that is EXTREMELY unlikely.

2. Riordan: The former Los Angeles mayor is a cross between Mr. Magoo and Karl Rove. Given the steps he has taken in the last few days (and no, we aren't talking about steps to some seaside haven), if he were anyone else, we would be certain that he is getting in the race -- and if he does, he becomes in many ways the front runner.

But Riordan's gubernatorial run in 2002 makes even Republicans who are urging him to run uneasy. He can be lazy and unfocused, and he has a history of listening to liberals and others who don't necessarily know about winning statewide campaigns.

It wouldn't shock us if Riordan decided in the end not to run, but the most likely scenario has him getting in the race in conjunction with his friend Arnold's Wednesday announcement. The two men have been coordinating their decision making.

3. The Democrats: Every day, Beltway and California Democrats (from Congress, in Sacramento, union leaders, and rich people throughout the state) are talking and looking at polling data, and trying to decide if it's worth the risk not to put a Democrat on the second ballot question.

The Davis forces are hoping to run out the clock with no major party candidate running, since they think that another candidate on the ballot greatly reduces Davis' chances of winning on the first question.

All eyes are on Senator Feinstein, who seems open to running if the party really wants her to. So far, the unions oppose her, and that has been enough to keep a huge movement to draft her from growing, although several California members of Congress last week either explicitly called for her to get in the race or raised the prospect that a candidate might be needed.

Our sense is that IF the party panics and decides it needs someone, Feinstein will be the choice.

We still haven't heard anything from the senator beyond her lack of intention to run. It will be interesting to see where and when we here from her during this August recess.

4. The courts: There are various ongoing and potential legal challenges to the recall -- trying to change the date; trying to change the nature of the ballot; arguing that the limited polling places and the old voting equipment aren't fair.

In what is probably the most important case right now besides the Governor's new action, sometime early this week the California Supreme Court will decide whether to block replacement candidates from appearing on the ballot. A former California state legislator claims that the state Constitution provides one -- and only one -- avenue for gubernatorial succession, and that's for the lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamante, to become governor in the event of a recall.

The ruling could come any day this week.

A Sunday Los Angeles Times editorial asks all of the questions still hanging out there before coming out firmly against the recall. LINK

"All of these questions, many of them ridiculous, add up to one conclusion about the recall election. It shouldn't be happening. California as national laughingstock is a small thing. California as a political and economic basket case is not. Wall Street analysts are watching the recall as closely as the comedians. When the laughs are over, Californians will have to live with the outcome. The more decisively the recall itself is rejected the better."

California recall, the courts:

The Los Angeles Times' Michael Finnegan and Jean Guccionne report that Governor Gray Davis' legal team is headed to California State Supreme Court today to file a lawsuit aimed at postponing the recall election until March 2, 2004 and at including Governor Davis as a replacement candidate on the second question on the recall ballot. LINK

"In a conference call with reporters Sunday, lawyers for the governor's anti-recall committee said they would ask the high court to postpone the recall election until the March 2 presidential primary, the next regularly scheduled statewide election."

"The suit will allege voting rights violations if the election takes place as scheduled Oct. 7, including the planned use of chad-producing punch-card ballot machines that were supposed to be replaced before the March election, they said."

"The suit also will cite a sharp drop in the number of polling places that counties plan to open for the special election."

"'The California Supreme Court has a chance to avert the train wreck we saw in Florida 2000,' said Kathleen Sullivan, dean of Stanford University Law School and a constitutional scholar on the Davis group's conference call."

"The suit also will seek a major change in the ballot rules. Under current rules, voters would face a two-part ballot: a yes-or-no vote on the proposed ouster of Davis, followed by a list of candidates running to replace him."

"As it stands, the governor is barred from putting his name on the list of replacement candidates; the lawsuit will seek to overturn that prohibition."

"To deny the governor a spot on the replacement ballot would violate one-person-one-vote protections in the U.S. Constitution, Davis' lawyers said."

You should start getting used to seeing and hearing from elections law attorney Fred Woocher as you do in Erica Werner's Associated Press write up. LINK

"An elections law expert said Davis would probably not succeed in getting his name on the ballot but had a better chance of delaying the election."

"'It would certainly appear to be easier to convince a court to postpone an election to a later date than to fundamentally change the nature of the election as it now it exists,' said the expert, Santa Monica attorney Fred Woocher."

Ms. Werner proceeds to sum up the recall docket.

"There are already four other legal petitions related to the recall pending before the California Supreme Court: two to keep replacement candidates' names off the ballot, one to keep two unrelated propositions off the recall ballot and one over the rules governing how successor candidates get on the ballot."

"Davis' attorneys said that of the 18 states with provisions for recalling statewide officials, only four, including California, bar the targeted official from running in the election."

Carla Marinucci and Harriet Chiang team up for the San Francisco Chronicle's coverage of Governor Davis' legal strategy. LINK

"'This election is operating under such duress, such a compressed truncated election schedule, that it cannot be a fair election,' San Leandro lawyer Robin Johansen, one of Davis' attorneys, said Sunday."

"Republicans immediately dismissed the action as a maneuver aimed at thwarting the will of 1.7 million Californians who signed recall petitions."

"'The governor probably would be better served spending more time talking to the voters and less time talking behind closed doors to his lawyers,' said Tom Hiltachk, attorney for Rescue California, the pro-recall organization funded by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), who is a candidate in the election."

Gary Delsohn of the Sacramento Bee calls Governor Davis' action a "novel legal challenge." Mr. Delsohn was then able to get Bill Simon on the phone for some reaction. LINK

"'I wish Gray Davis would fight as hard for the people of California as he's fighting to keep his job,' said Republican Bill Simon, who lost to Davis in last fall's election and will likely run in the recall."

"'Let the people speak. There's a mechanism in place. Why doesn't he defend his record rather than complain about the recall being unfair?'"

The San Jose Mercury News was first to report the governor's legal strategies on Saturday. Laura Kurtzman fills out her reporting after yesterday's conference call. LINK

The MALDEF wants Proposition 54 removed from the recall ballot and pushed back to March 2, 2004. LINK

"The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is urging Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to pull the measure from the recall ballot and return it to the original election date, March 2."

"Only by postponing the election, the lawsuit states, would California meet state election code requirements that dictate, among other things, that voters must have access to ballot information on propositions at least 100 days before an election. Under the current time frame, the information would be available on Aug. 11, giving voters 57 days."

The proposition's proponents mixed their metaphors in response.

"'It feels like the opposition is two touchdowns behind and only two minutes left, and now they want to call for another quarter,' Diane Schachterle, the initiative's coordinator, said Friday. 'We don't have a problem with the timing; we have already stated that we will play the cards we've been dealt.'"

California recall, the Democrats:

The Los Angeles Times Finnegan/Guccione duo had so much more than legal maneuvers in their story today. LINK

"But in the latest sign of how the support from within the governor's own party has started to waver, state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) will meet today with Senate Democrats to consider whether to back a Democratic candidate to replace Davis, in case voters oust him."

"Democratic senators oppose the recall, but asked for the meeting because they are 'concerned that there is no fallback,' Burton said."

Christian Berthelsen and John Wildermuth of the San Francisco Chronicle got their hands on a poll commissioned by the California Teachers Association and told their readers all about on Sunday. LINK

"Yet as Davis was hoping to get a boost from the budget signing, both Republican and Democratic strategists confirmed Saturday that a poll done for the California Teachers Association late last week showed Davis losing in the recall, 54 percent to 39 percent."

"That's worse than the 51 percent to 43 percent gap shown in a Field Poll two weeks ago, and operatives from both parties said recent polls done for Democratic legislators and for various would-be candidates show similarly bad news for Davis."

"'I haven't seen any polls, but from talking to a lot of people, my sense is that the recall is ahead by 15 to 20 percentage points,' said Darry Sragow, a veteran Democratic consultant. 'I expect that number will narrow as we get closer to the (Aug. 9) filing deadline.'"

More Berthelsen/Wildermuth: "If the pollsters now conducting a nonstop onslaught on California voters find the governor's numbers aren't improving, there could be a stampede of Democratic candidates by the end of next week."

"Davis' backers did not deny that recent poll numbers have not favored the governor, but dismissed concerns that leading Democrats were ready to jump ship and get into the recall mix."

"'There may be some aberrations,' said Peter Ragone, a spokesman for the anti-recall effort, 'but the reality is that the party has seldom been as united as it is now.'"

The San Jose Mercury News (a.k.a. The Merc) has Congresswoman Maxine Waters joining the group of wavering Democrats. LINK

"Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, believes that having one candidate is crucial, but when asked if that should be Davis, she responded in an interview, 'We don't know.'"

"'We have to be careful not to get divided and allow them to take California through this fluke recall election,' Waters said of Republicans. 'If Dianne Feinstein is talked into getting onto the ballot, I hope Gray Davis would step down.'"

The Los Angeles Times' Cara Mia DiMassa produced a Sunday story about California labor unions launching WAR (Workers Against the Recall). LINK

"About 100 union organizers and activists gathered Saturday morning to learn how to use traditional "get out the vote" methods - including precinct walking, voter registration and phone banks - to fight the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. But they also were told how to argue against the very nature of the recall."

Michael Finnegan bundled last week's unfavorable comments (unfavorable to the anti-recall folks) made by Bill Lockyer, Barbara Boxer, and Willie Brown into one wallop of a Saturday story that ran under the headline, "Democrats Attack Davis over Campaign." LINK

Looking back at the gubernatorial contest of 2002, Davis media strategist David Doak employed the "Riordan went negative first" strategy. Then he explained why a Democrat will most likely lose on a recall ballot. "In making their pitch for unity, Doak and other Davis strategists say that any top-tier Democrat who runs on the recall ballot would be unlikely to win.

Voting patterns from legislative recalls suggest that many voters whose support is critical to a Democratic candidate would vote no on the recall, and then pick no one at all to replace Davis, Doak said."

"Also, he said, a Democrat would have a tough time raising money with new donation caps in place and would be savaged by wealthy GOP rivals - and multiple Democrats would probably split the vote and lose. Davis, as the subject of the recall, is not subject to donation caps."

Bill Lockyer's strategist Bill Carrick spoke up on his client's defense.

"Lockyer was 'just saying out loud what a lot of other Democrats think,' Carrick said. 'They want some assurance that there's going to be a different kind of campaign. The trash talking of Dick Riordan that's going on is not very reassuring in that regard.'"

Robert Salladay and Carla Marinucci produced a Saturday story for the San Francisco Chronicle that also focused on the Boxer and Lockyer comments made to other publications. LINK

"Davis advisers scoffed at Lockyer's comments and accused him of piously preaching from a comfortable position. Lockyer's last two statewide elections, they point out, were against weak candidates without personal wealth. His last opponent, Republican Dick Ackerman, didn't run TV ads, allowing Lockyer to stockpile $10 million in campaign contributions and remain above the fray."

"Davis, on the other hand, has faced competitive races from four millionaires, both Democrats and Republicans, and now faces a recall election that likely will include another set of self-funded candidates. In Davis' 1998 primary, his opponents spent almost $60 million in an attempt to defeat him."

"'Under those circumstances,' said Davis political adviser Garry South, 'it's awfully generous of him to offer us advice on how to handle our opponents. After he's been elected governor twice by beating four candidates with millions to burn, maybe he will have a realistic view of what it takes to run a race.'"

Matier & Ross weigh in on the Democratic unity thing and write that not all Democrats are thrilled with the idea of candidate Feinstein. LINK

"Put it all together and you have the talk of "Democratic unity" looking more like a ferret family dinner -- with the governor being served up as the main course of everyone's discontent."

Margaret Telev of the Sacrament Bee produced a must-read Sunday piece on Governor Davis' slow realization that the recall election was going to be. LINK

"The turning point for Davis seemed to come in June, during a telephone conversation with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who polls show is the most popular elected official in the state..."

"...Feinstein urged fellow Democrats to pledge that they would not run to replace Davis if an election were held. Polls suggested many Californians would vote against a recall if they couldn't choose another Democrat."

"But she also told Davis that he must accept that an election was inevitable and begin to fight for his survival."

California recall, the GOP:

The prolific Carla Marinucci wonders if Arnold's decision to appear with Jay Leno this week indicates that his flirting with a candidacy may have been more about movie promotion than governing. LINK

In Sunday's San Jose Mercury News Dion Nissenbaum reports Republicans are concerned that Richard Riordan may repeat his mistakes of 2002. LINK

"'He ran a very unfocused and scattered campaign,' said one high-ranking state Republican leader. 'It's essential that he discipline himself and completely put himself in the hands of his political team.'"

"Riordan is known as a temperamental friend who does not suffer fools gladly. Although he entered last year's race with no close confidant to guide him, Riordan is gearing up for the recall with longtime aide Noelia Rodriguez at the helm."

"Many Republicans view Rodriguez -- who now works as press secretary for first lady Laura Bush -- as the linchpin of a Riordan victory."

"'If Dick decides to run, he has to find at least one person to whom he's willing to listen,' said GOP strategist Dan Schnur, who dropped out of the last Riordan campaign after failing to win his full confidence. 'He's a very smart man, but the one thing that was lacking from his campaign was day-to-day discipline.'"

Darrell Issa isn't well known statewide, but the Los Angeles Times reports that he's also not that well known within his congressional district. LINK

Daniel Weintraub provides his readers with Bill Simon's reaction to the $99 billion budget signed into law by the governor. LINK

California recall, the circus:

Joe Klein laments the lack of civility in public life as represented by California's recent electoral history and current recall drama. LINK

"The California recall is goofy, irresponsible-and not a bad way to remind politicians that their work involves more than raising money and spending it on nasty nonsense."

Californians Against the Costly Recall and Rescue California are going head to head over the recall question with each side prepared to raise and spend at least $15 million. LINK

"But both spending projections are likely to prove quite low, given the national attention directed toward the recall election, Davis' well- established fund-raising expertise and the lack of any limits on spending or fund-raising for either side in the recall battle."

Mr. Salladay and Ms. Marinucci's Saturday story also included the revised cost of the recall election put out by Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. The price tag is now at $67 million, roughly double what Mr. Shelley initially projected. LINK

Saturday's edition of the Sacramento Bee also had a story on the $67 million election. LINK

"Jonathan Wilcox, a spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, who helped fund the recall drive, said he believed Davis pollsters simply kept suggesting higher figures to voters until they got a negative reaction when they hit $60 million."

"'They were saying $30 million at first and they just kept throwing out numbers until they saw the poll numbers move,' Wilcox said. 'The governor's mouthpieces are just trying to scare people.'"

"Republicans also contend that the cost of the election is small compared to what the state could save by tossing the Democratic governor out of office."

Add punk rocker Jack Grisham to the list of potential replacement candidates. LINK

Patt Morrison's recall roundup includes one candidate's thwarted attempt to raise the filing fee on Ebay. LINK

The Sacramento Bee looked at how the recall is playing beyond the Golden State. LINK

The Sacramento Bee reports that counties are scrambling to prepare for the October 7th election. LINK

Confusion abounds declares the San Jose Mercury News. LINK

California recall, the budget:

Governor Gray Davis signed a $99 billion budget on Saturday and declared it wasn't "pretty." LINK

The Associated Press' Tom Chorneau also wrote up all the details of the $99 billion budget. LINK

In Sunday's edition of the Sacramento Bee, Dan Weintraub said he is no fan of this budget. LINK