WHAT'S PLAN C?

California Democrats Give Davis Two Weeks (Major Garrett, August 15, 2003, Fox News)

A new statewide Field Poll released Friday shows that 58 percent of Californian voters now favor recalling Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (search), a seven point increase over the last Field Poll in July.

The news sent Democrats across the state into panic and deepened disillusionment with Davis' continued demands that party donors and special interest groups stick with him in his drive to defeat the Oct. 7 recall.

"It's really, really bad for him," a top statewide Democratic strategist told Fox News. "Because he's been leaning on people all week saying polls showing him in trouble are wrong. Well, what's he going to say now when almost every newspaper in the state on Friday will carry this poll?" [...]

Democrats say Davis has been betting that the media will pound actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is running for the governor's seat as a Republican, and that his image will suffer as the campaign drags on. Strategists also say Davis will appear in public as often as possible to remind Democrats that he's their leader in Sacramento and that the recall is an assault on the entire Democratic Party.

"He's going to say in very strong terms that the recall is part of a Republican attempt to achieve through recall what they haven't achieved in a regular election for years," said a Democratic member of Congress. "We are hoping that people in this state will begin to wake up and see this as a Republican grab for power."

Democratic strategists also said they decided against a public boost for Bustamante because that campaign isn't ready to step into the fray.

You're kind of hurt when you can't risk having the campaign spotlight turned on your backup candidate, notorious lightweight Cruz Bustamante. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 15, 2003 9:49 AM