Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 10

Ml EDITIONS A 10 THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 1087 RECALL Continued from A1 Car Jaffc' wmmmiz' iMsmf MW Ed Buck (left), the founder of a recall movement targeting Gov. Evan Mecham, says, "For all those people who said it can't be done, I point to the election of Governor Evan Mecham. Everyone said that couldn't be done." Christopher "Kip" Shippy, the teen-age founder of the Ev Mecham Fan Club, is often pitted against Buck on radio-talk-show debates. Shippy, of Tempe, says Mecham is a fine governor who is misunderstood because the news media are not treating him fairly. i Bucking the system: Unlikely figure leads challenge to Mecham Main Mecham man: 'I'm just a little pawn showing his support' Buck, millionaire, self-acknowledged homosexual and registered Republican, is destined to go down in history as one of Arizona's most unlikely political figures.

Buck is the founder and prime mover of an effort aimed at mounting the first recall of an Arizona governor t's heady stuff for a 16-year-old, traipsing from radio station to radio station on a self-appointed mission to defend the administration of Gov. Evan Mecham. But Christopher "Kip" Shippy has taken it upon himself -to spread the word about the man he calls Arizona's best governor. volunteers, but you can't." But the biggest obstacle to overcome has nothing to do with money or organization, experts say. It has to do with the simple fact that summer makes Arizona an unbearably hot place.

"I think the thing that's going to kill them is starting in July," Kromkp said. "To get that number of signatures, you have to be able to stand in front of a Safeway for eight hours with petitions." To recall Mecham, the movement must collect 216,746 signatures of registered voters. Because many people tend to sign such petitions regardless of whether they are actually registered, organizers believe they must deliver 350,000 names to the secretary of state to have a safe cushion. Can they do it? "1 don't think so," said Senate Minority Leader Alan Stephens, a Phoenix Democrat and one of Mecham's harshest critics. "If I was in the recall, I would push them to not start on July 6." July 6, the day the governor has been in office for six months, is the first day the recall effort can officially begin.

By starting now, instead of waiting until the cooler months, when large numbers of signatures can be collected at football games and other events, the recall will miss the 15 percent of the population that spends much of the summer vacationing outside Arizona. But Buck said he believes he must "strike while the iron is hot" and maintain the momentum that has built up since December. He also said enough Arizonans are fed up with revelations about the questionable pasts of some of Mecham's appointees and with the governor's widely quoted remarks about "pickaninnies" and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

One of Mecham's first acts as governor was to rescind a paid state holiday honoring the slain civil-rights leader. He since has proclaimed a non-paid, Sunday memorial day commemorating King. If enough signatures are obtained, Mecham has the option of resigning or putting the issue to the voters. Given the fact that it took him five tries to get to the governor's office and that he believes the people of Arizona love him, it seems unlikely that he would walk away from the job, observers say. So his name would appear on the ballot, along with the names of anyone else who wanted to be governor and could collect 3,336 signatures on nominating petitions.

Collecting 3,336 signatures is not that difficult, politicians say, and some believe that if an election was held, several candidates would jump in and split the vote, handing the race to the incumbent. If Mecham lost the election, he would be replaced within five days of the official vote canvass, which could take about two weeks. But Buck said he doesn't worry about the outcome of the election. His job, he said, is to give the voters another chance to decide whether Mecham should be governor. The recall campaign will not field a candidate.

Once the petition drive is over, Buck claims, the recall office will shut down. In the meantime, though, Buck, as the force behind the drive, is in for tough scrutiny. Buck's homosexuality and his two arrests already have become issues Qf debate, especially when he goes on radio talk shows. The founder and president of the Ev Mecham Fan Club, 16-year-old Kip Shippy, has raised the gay issue in debates with Buck, although he said last week that it will not be a focal point of the defense of Mecham. The governor, who has repeatedly called homosexuality an "unacceptable lifestyle," said Thursday that Buck's sexual preferences will not be an issue.

"I have never been a party to worrying about his lifestyle," Mecham said. "I don't approve of that in anybody, but that's me, that's my private right to do that. We have never done anything about the fact that Ed has admitted that he's a homosexual. I think that limits him. I don't think it limits us." A fervent Mecham supporter, Julian Sanders, has raised Buck's sexual preferences in the past, but Buck said he believes that strategy failed.

"It backfired on him the first time," Buck said, "when Julian Sanders had the two press conferences and said, 'Ed Buck is a "That was a turning point for the (recall) campaign. That was the point that more people got on board this thing than at any other time." Buck is routinely called during radio shows by people who raise the issue, but he said he believes this will pass. "People who don't like the idea that Ed Buck is a homosexual have gotten over it, and they realize that Recall procedure "1. A recall commhtoo submits a statement to' the secretary of state explaining why it Is seeking the removal of the governor. 2.

The committee has 120 days to collect at least 216,746 signatures from registered voters on recall petitions. 3. The recall committee submits its petitions to the secretary of state, who has 10 days to count and decide whether there are enough for a possible recall election. 4. If there are enough, the secretary of state sends copies of the petitions to each county.

Counties have 60 days to verify the signatures as those of registered voters in that county. 5. the counties indicate that enough registered voters have signed the petitions, the secretary of state goes to the governor and gives him five days to decide whether to resign or run in a special election. 6. If the governor decides to run, the secretary of state calls an election within 100 to 120 days.

The governor's name is automatically placed on the ballot. Challengers who have collected at least 3,336 nominating signatures also will have their names placed on the ballot. Political affiliations are not included on the ballot. 'Burt Kruglick says, "They have a right to do this. But my feeling is that they don't have any substance for a recall." State Rep.

John Kromko says. "I think the thing that's going to kill them (the Mecham Recall Committee) is starting in July." the fact the Ed Buck is a homosexual is not the issue," Buck said. "The issue is Ev Mecham's incompetence." Still, Buck made an effort several weeks ago to distance himself from the movement. The recall, which had been based in his Phoenix home, moved to an office at 10 W. Camelback Road.

And in May, Buck stepped down as the head of the drive, installing the former head of the Gray Panthers, Naomi Harward, as chairwoman. "We needed to show the public that there were more people involved in it than just Ed Buck and that there were people involved in it that were not gay, Buck said. "Naomi Harward became an excellent choice because she could appeal to the older population. His (Mecham's) only support is the 50 and 50-plus age group." But Harward is a nominal head at best. People calling the recall office will find Buck there every day.

Harward rarely is there. "In reality, I'm one of five people who are down here," Buck said. "She is very much policy-setting -Recall, All Jr Mft I ft Shippy, who recently completed his junior year at Tempe's McClintock High School, is the founder of the Ev Mecham Fan Club. The group meets periodically at different locations to discuss strategies for letting Arizonans know what a good job they believe Mecham has done since taking office Jan. 5.

Shippy says 2,000 people have called or written to him to support his efforts. But he declines to take much credit. "I'm just a little pawn showing his support," said Shippy, who on Monday begins an unpaid internship running errands for the governor's office. Shippy says Mecham is a fine governor who is misunderstood because the news media are not treating him fairly. Shippy is a regular guest on radio-talk-show debates, pitted against Ed Buck, the founder of a recall movement targeting Mecham.

Many of the things Shippy says echo Mecham's public statements. For instance, Shippy says: The Phoenix 40, which Mecham has said is part of an invisible power structure trying to run the state, "is not what we need." But Shippy admits that he knows little about the group of Phoenix businessmen Mecham has spent years railing against. "I just know they can (use payoffs) to get what they want," he said. Mecham is different from other politicians, because he will not bow to special-interest groups. "He'll be signing different bills into law that he feels should be law," Shippy said.

Mecham is a governor with traditional moral values. Shippy has his future mapped out so meticulously that he plans to run for the Tempe City Council in 1991 and later for the state Senate. But he says his first real venture into politics hasn't been all fun. "When I started it, my friendship level really went low," Shippy said. "I've tried hardest to regain my friends, but in my mind, I'm kind of glad that at least I found out who my real friends are." Shippy claims he has been pushed around at school by people who oppose his efforts and that he has received hate mail and even telephone death threats.

But he has not been dissuaded. "I'm going to fight till the end," he said. "I'll do the same thing I've been doing since I started this." That entails telling everyone he meets that Mecham has been misunderstood on the furor over the cancellation of the paid state holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

and on other controversies. He believes in Mecham and is a dedicated Republican, as are his father and stepmother. He talks frequently with the governor's aides and occasionally with Mecham. Shippy, who works at two part-time jobs, one in a popcorn store and one as a telephone solicitor for an insurance company, has been active in other political functions. He founded the McClintock Teen-age Republican Club and writes occasionally for Footprints, a Christian-oriented political newsletter.

Shippy said he hopes to go to Cheyenne, next summer to help his uncle's campaign for mayor. He plans to return to Tempe to enter politics, in part for reasons that sound much like Mecham's. "I want to be a senator because I love Tempe," he said. "There are people out there who would like to see the city do a little bit more. It seems odd, because I know a lot of politicians are there for the power and the money that there is, but I really want to help people." Shippy also plans to enter Arizona State University and major in business so he "can be some sort of high executive and make a minor in TV newscasting." Although he has said he does not believe Mecham has been treated fairly by the press, he still wants to be a reporter.

"I like journalism, and I think it's fun," Shippy said. "I would like to do it, because I think it would be fun. It would give me an inside-information-type thing on how you guys work." SAM STANTON Republican Evan Mecham. And Buck, who says he has amassed the support of thousands of Arizonans disenchanted with their new chief of state, honestly believes he can do it. "For all those people who said it can't be done," Buck said, "I point to the election of Governor Evan Mecham.

Everyone said that couldn't be done." But it happened, and Buck says he is partly to blame. He and about 170,000 others voted for Bill Schulz, whose independent candidacy is blamed by some political analysts for handing the governor's job to Mecham in his fifth bid for the post. Born Aug. 25, 1954, in Steuhenville, Ohio "the same place Dean Martin was born" Edward Bernard Peter Buckmelter came late to politics. His parents were middle-class workers who moved to Phoenix when he was 6.

"My childhood was uneventful as hell," Buck said, stating that he graduated from North High School and Phoenix College. In the middle and late 1970s, Buck began modeling for sportswear ads in Europe. In 1980, after having appeared in some European television commercials and acted in two foreign films, Buck returned to Arizona. In 1981, he had his name legally changed from Buckmelter. "I picked up mail for a business on a bicycle," Buck said, stating that he eventually bought the business and sold it for "big bucks." The big bucks, stemming from the March 1986 sale of Rapid Information Services, which provides driver's license information to insurance companies, made him "barely more than $1 million." During his political adolescence, Buck was arrested in an incident that his opponents have seized upon as evidence that he is not fit to 1 condemn the governor.

It was 1983, and he was on East McDowell Road an adult bookstore, when a Phoenix police officer arrested him on a charge of public sexual indecency. "A friend of mine and I were watching a movie in a booth, and I grabbed his crotch," Buck said. "It was viewed by a police officer, and she deemed that it was public indecency." The charge later was dismissed after Buck pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace and paid a fine. Buck said he decided to do something about Mecham's election after the furor began over the then-governor elect's plans to cancel the paid holiday for state workers honoring the Rev. Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. So, in December, weeks before the Glendale Pontiac dealer took office, Buck appeared in front of the Capitol in faded blue jeans, a T-shirt and a fistful of crudely lettered "Recall Ev" bumper stickers. "I was amazed at the responses I was getting," he said. "People were smiling as they approached me. Then there was a small story in The Republic on it, and people started calling me, saying, 'Are you the Ed Buck who was passing out bumper stickers? what can we do to 1 But as the media focused attention on the recall, Buck began to learn about the life of a public figure.

He was approached in a drugstore by a state Department of Public Safety investigator and asked about a prescription he was filling for the painkiller Percodan. Buck said he had photocopied an old prescription for the drug, because his dentist was out of town. The matter became widely known politically thanks in part to Mecham press secretary, Ron Bellus, who telephoned reporters to ask if they had heard of Buck's arrest. "I think it's underhanded and dastardly what he did," Buck said. "He got on the phone and attempted to plant the story with the press." Bellus has said he was only asking about it out of curiosity.

Buck said he believes he was singled out because of his activities. Buck was indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury on a charge of attempting to obtain a narcotic through fraud or deceit. A judge put the case on hold while Buck undergoes a program approved by the court that requires him to be tested for drugs every Wednesday for a year. If Buck remains clean for a year, the charges may be dismissed. State's first governor also faced recall effort But rancher Johnson, according to newspaper article, had created the first attempt to oust a sitting governor.

"This is said to be the first time in the history of the country that such an effort has been made to recall the chief executive of any state," The Republican reported. Although other recall movements have surfaced in Arizona since, they also failed. The last attempt came in 1972, when Republican Gov. Jack Williams came under fire for signing a controversial farm-labor law. The United Farm Workers union sparked the effort, and it quickly gathered steam and more than 100,000 signatures.

The movement was derailed by a state attorney general's opinion that signatures collected by deputy voter registrars could not be counted unless the signers came forward to verify that they had not been coerced into signing. The U.S. Department of Justice called the state opinion unenforceable, but the action came in January 1974 in the last year of Williams' term. Arizona never has had an election to recall a governor, but the state was the first in the nation to ever seriously attempt such action, according to a newspaper report at the time. In October 1915, what was reported to be the nation's first recall attempt against a governor was launched against George W.P.

Hunt "in the vicinity of Mesa," according to The Arizona Republican, the precursor to The Arizona Republic. A Mesa rancher, H.F. Johnson, began the movement with a petition signed by 143 voters. The newspaper reported that the reason for the recall attempt was that "the governor has attempted to incite and encourage class hatred and divisions and that he has conducted the affairs of state with a wanton and reckless extravagance and has created a state bordering near unto anarchy in certain parts of the commonwealth." The recall, which would have needed the signatures of 13,739 voters to have succeeded, failed. Hunt, the state's first elected governor, served terms in 1913-16, 1917-18, 1923-28 and 1931-32..