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Steve Hansen, a supporter of California Gov. Gray Davis, walks through a crowd of recall supporte

Less than a year after being voted into office, Gov. Gray Davis has begun campaigning for election again – this time to save his job.

With a date for the recall election to replace the governor set for Oct. 7, Davis kicked off his election drive this weekend by rallying organized labor in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, in anticipation of running, four potential Republican candidates held an anti-Davis rally in Sacramento to cement voter support.

Davis became only the second governor in the nation’s history to face a recall election when Secretary of State Kevin Shelly certified last Wednesday that the Republican-led recall drive had gathered enough signatures to warrant a special election.

Last Thursday, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante announced the date of the election and said the names of candidates to replace Davis would be on the ballot.

Bustamante drew criticism on the day the election was announced when he suggested the vote to recall Davis and the vote to choose a replacement could occur on two different dates.

An election date of Oct. 7 gives potential candidates until 5 p.m. on Aug. 9 to file for candidacy. Candidates must submit either 65 signatures from registered voters and pay $3,500, or submit 10,000 signatures to waive the fee.

So far, only one Republican candidate, car alarm magnate and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, has declared his intention to run. Issa funded much of the recall petition drive with money from his own pocket.

Other potential candidates include former GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon, who lost to Davis in the race for governor last November, state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The former Green Party candidate for governor, Peter Camejo, has also announced his intention to run.

Thus far, no major Democratic officeholder has announced their intention to run against Davis on the ballot, despite the fact that polls have indicated both Bustamante and Sen. Dianne Feinstein are more popular among voters than the governor.

UCLA political science professor Jeffrey Lewis said the decision by major Democrats not to run was a shrewd move because, by not adding an alternative to Davis, they did not implicitly admit that Davis had been a poor governor.

“If there was a legitimate candidate for the Democrats out there, then the Republicans could say: ‘This person is contesting (Davis).’ There’s some moral legitimacy to the process if it’s contested,” he said.

But some Democrats, including Feinstein, have not completely ruled out the possibility of running either. Potential candidates may wait until close to the deadline before testing voter sentiment and then making a final decision.

Davis was banking on party unity on Saturday when he spoke to about 200 security guards in Los Angeles, stressing that the recall election was not about him but about pushing forward with a Democratic agenda.

“This recall election isn’t about me, it’s about you,” he said. “It’s about moving forward, not backward.”

Meanwhile, Issa, Simon, and McClintock were among those who rallied about 1,000 supporters in the state capitol. Speaking to a singing, slogan-shouting audience, they accused Davis of mismanaging state funds and landing California in a $38 billion budget deficit.

“You put a face on the evil of government waste, of increasing taxes, of overspending and increasing bureaucracy. You put a face on it and the face is Gray Davis,” Issa said.

About 150 counter-protesters, many from organized labor, rallied across the street from the Republican candidates, dismissing the recall as a waste of money and a right-wing attempt to hijack the state.

Before the election was certified, Davis supporters stressed the cost of the recall, which they project to be as high as $60 million, as a reason for voters to oppose the initiative.

The only other gubernatorial recall election in the nation occurred in 1921 when North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier was removed from office.

With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.