Sacramento Bee columnist/blogger Daniel Weintraub debunks a plethora of myths about today's recall election here in California. If you've followed the election closely, many of them will come as no surprise. But at least one was news to me:

Myth: Many of the paid circulators were convicted criminals bused here from out of state.

Fact: None of the circulators were bused to California by the campaign. A few who do this kind of work for a living came from other states, as they do for any major ballot initiative. Two of the petition circulators had criminal records, but they worked only briefly for the recall campaign before quitting to go to work for the Davis campaign, gathering signatures on petitions supporting the governor. [emphasis added]

Of course, the real question is: Were the two crooks in question Davis campaign plants? Did they take those jobs at the behest of the Democratic Party so Davis partisans could make exactly that claim? It's unlikely, but this isn't the first time a political party has engaged in dirty tricks.