ABSTRACT
None even qualified for the ballot, although a 1968 effort to recall Governor Ronald Reagan came close. Membership was mostly based on and connected to the organization by direct mail but was nevertheless sufficiently formidable to qualify a number of significant initiatives for the California ballot. The actions of Davis and his supporters may have backfired to the extent that they helped provoke the direct involvement of California’s Republican leadership in the recall effort. California’s requirements for recalling statewide elected officials are the easiest among the eighteen states that permit recalls. A national study found that in 1942 California property taxes had been 89 percent of the national average, but by 1976 they had risen to 142 percent. A native of Arkansas who came to California in the 1930s, Gann retired from selling cars and real estate to become an antitax crusader and a persistent government gadfly in the 1970s.
