The recall depends on the last election. 13% I believe of the total number of voters in the last election. That number is the required number of signatures from registered voters in order to force a recall (in Nevada, its 20%). Due to the fact that voter turnout was at an all time low, Davis, you could say, set a new low.
Now, even getting 13% is normally very hard to do in the first place. Remember, if it was easy, the 31 times it was tried before this one, it would\'ve succeeded. Instead, this IS the first time a recall of a governor has been successful. Which, goes to show how much Davis is unliked in this state.
As for Republicans winning in California, no Republican lost by more then 300,000 in the last election. The closet, was about lost by 30,000. Now, if Republicans were able to get more of them to vote due to the low turnout, it was really possible that we could\'ve swept statewide offices. Of coarse, the opposite happen because they couldn\'t do it (and I blame in part, Bill Simon. But mostly the party leaders who, since they didn\'t like Bill Simon or anyone that is a TRUE conservative, withheld their support and money and let the Democrats take the state).