On Aug. 12, 56 days before the Oct. 7 recall election of Gov. Gray Davis, the ballot grew to 115 candidates aiming to replace him, while the secretary of state’s office reviewed 132 more applications. Altogether, 247 Californians submitted $3,500 and 65 signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The Aug. 11 random alphabet drawing propelled David “Laughing Horse” Robinson to first place on California’s first recall ballot. Robinson, a Kern County Democrat, calls himself the first American Indian to run for governor of California. The candidate is chairman of the Kweye-Soo tribe and an art technician at California State University, Bakersfield.

Political commentator Arianna Huffington named Dean Barkley, manager of Jesse Ventura’s successful 1998 campaign for governor of Minnesota, as her daily campaign manager. Meanwhile, comedian Gallagher got booted off Washington Post premises in the nation’s capitol after showing up at the newspaper carrying a large cardboard box of dirty clothes and loudly promoting his gubernatorial bid.

People who happened across an upstart Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor website, with the name spelled wrongly as schwarzeneger.com, found a hijacker on board. Instead of the “Terminator,” up popped a pro-Davis Web site. By Aug. 12, the “Terminator’s” technical crews had booted the governor’s image into deep cyberspace, replacing him with an alternate website.

California Democratic Party spokesman Bob Mulholland apologized for his warning to Schwarzenegger that, unlike in the movies, he would face “real bullets” in a political campaign. Mulholland said later on Fox News he should have avoided the Hollywood words and said “real political issues.”

“Conceivably, it ought to be paid for by all the rich people running, like Schwarzenegger. ... Those that brought this recall about possibly ought to help the taxpayers pay for it.”