As I wrote last week, the Dirty Trick initiative to steal 20+ of California's electoral votes for the Republican candidate is back from the dead, and with just 2 weeks left to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures, they've got a funder lined up in Rep. Darrell Issa, the man behind the recall.

Lucas O'Connor provides some background over at Calitics:

Issa, who represents the 49th Congressional District, is one of the richest people in Congress, making a fortune off the Viper car alarm (step back, you are too close to the vehicle).  Issa is a veteran of throwing gobs of personal money into campaigns.  He dropped $12 million of his own money to lose the Republican Senate primary in 1998.  He was a bit more successful in 2003 when he dug into his wallet for $1.6 million in personal cash to fund the signature gathering for the Gray Davis recall which, when asked if it was worth it earlier this month, he said "Yes, of course."  Well, Rep. Issa is ponying up the big bucks again, lining up behind Dirty Tricks in its hour of need.

According to the Riverside Press Enterprise, the amount of money Issa is donating remains "fluid" but will likely be well under the $1.6 million he gave to the recall effort. But no matter how much he donates to this latest scheme, if we've learned one thing since 2003 it's not to underestimate the right-wing's capacity for dirty tricks.

So this time we're ready, because if there's one thing Issa didn't have to deal with in the recall effort it was an organized opposition; things are different now. Thanks to my colleagues at the Courage Campaign, the California netroots is mobilized against this initiative, no matter how many lives it has. We killed it once, we'll kill it again and we have Bradley Whitford on board to help us.

Check out his latest video in support of our effort:

But we are going to need some help. If this thing gets on the ballot, it's going to take millions of dollars to defeat it, money and effort that should be going to electing and re-electing California Democrats. That's why it's so important to help our early effort to keep the initiative off the ballot in the first place. If you can, contribute at the Courage Campaign's ActBlue page and as always check out NoDirtyTricks.com for ongoing updates.

Update [2007-10-31 22:11:20 by Todd Beeton]: Ahh, was just alerted to this article in The Hill, in which Issa claims his donation isn't terribly large at all.

"I have made a small contribution [to the campaign behind the proposal]," said Issa, who refused to disclose exactly how much he gave. He did say the amount was in the tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Issa also confirmed that he would additionally provide access to his own extensive fundraising network, which includes e-mails, as well as home addresses, of those who helped out in the 2003 recall.

Getting this on the ballot is going to require at least $2 million. What do they have up their sleeve?