We knew it'd happen somewhere along the line: Gray Davis recall effort sparks a lawsuit.

Backers of Gov. Gray Davis filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming that paid signature gatherers violated election laws while compiling petitions to force a historic referendum on whether Davis should be replaced. The suit came a day after groups trying to recall the Democratic governor for what they say is gross mismanagement announced they had gathered more than 1.6 million signatures, nearly double the number needed to force the referendum...

Tuesday's suit asks a state judge to require state election officials to set aside petitions gathered in three of California's most populous counties and closely examine the backgrounds of the petition circulators.

Under state law, Taxpayers Against the Governor's Recall claims, circulators of any petition to recall a state official must be registered California voters. An attorney for the group, Paul Kiesel, said organizers of the recall effort bused in paid signature gatherers from Arizona and Washington state -- including at least three convicted felons -- put them up in cheap hotels, and told them to register to vote using the addresses of the hotels to qualify as petition circulators.

Hmm...let's think about this for a moment.

Now, I understand exactly why they have this law. I wouldn't want outsiders coming along screwing with the affairs of my home state either, that's dirty. However, if they got almost double the signatures they need to trigger the recall, then doesn't this at least suggest that maybe the people of California are seriously pissed at Gov. Davis' performance enough to the point where the sig gatherers are following a trend, outsiders or not? If they were to charge that the signatures were fake or coerced by some type of trick, then I'd see their point, but until further notice this looks like grabbing for straws to me.