On February 5, 2003, Ted Costa of the People's Advocate group filed a "Notice of intention to circulate recall petition" with the Secretary of State's Office, thereby informing Governor Gray Davis of the group's intention to begin actions to recall him. On March 25th, the petition drive began. That might have been the beginning and end of the California recall except for the fact that on May 6, 2003 a businessman and state representative named Darrell Issa gave new life to the movement with the first of many six-figure contributions. Before the recall was over, Darrell Issa had contributed over one million dollars of his own money towards the effort. The result, on July 23rd, Secretary of State, Kevin Shelley reported that more than 1.3 million valid signatures were turned in. Almost seventy percent more than the 897,158 needed. .
In the next several weeks candidates representing all walks of life and every political party imaginable entered the fray and on August 13, 2003 the Secretary of State certified a total of 135 candidates would appear on the October 7th ballot. The most notable of these were Lt. Governor, Cruz Bustamante, Democrat, state senator, Tom McClintock, Republican, and actor/entrepreneur, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican. .
Over the next seven weeks, public opinion polls clearly showed the continued dissatisfaction of the California people with incumbent, Gray Davis. Although the margin seemed to narrow closer to the election, the polls still showed that the majority of Californian's wanted Gray Davis out of office. Approximately one week before the election the Gallup Organization reported, "The recall is favored by 55% of all registered voters in California, but by 63% of those deemed by Gallup to be most likely to vote. " Most of the other polls seemed to find the same results and on October 8th their forecasting proved to be true. When all the votes had been counted, Californians voted to recall Governor Gray Davis by a margin of 55.
