MARK WAITE / PVT Charlene Olson signs a petition to recall Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos across from Terrible's Lakeside Casino last month. RELATED STORY Sheriff defends arrest Advertisement

Like the old Christmas Carol about the 12 days of Christmas, the arrest of Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos happened 12 days before people circulating a petition calling for his recall have to turn in their signatures.

The petitions are due by Jan. 2. There must be at least 670 valid signatures of voters in District 5 asking for a recall election, or one-fourth of the voters in that district who cast ballots in the 2006 election.

Recall supporters say they have enough signatures to ask for the first recall election since former Nye County Public Administrator Bob "Red" Dyer was recalled in January 2000.

Liakopoulos' arrest on a bribery charge appears to have rejuvenated the recall campaign, supporters said.

Supporters were posted on Thousandaire Boulevard and Homestead Road for at least the second time Saturday, just across from Terrible's Lakeside Casino.

"We had the best day we had yet. We had over 100 signatures that day," said Bill Garlough, whose wife Pat lost to Liakopoulos in the Republican party primary in August 2006. "We thought this was going to be a disaster with Christmas being so close."

There weren't many people commenting about the arrest as they signed the petition, Garlough said. He said supporters of the petition to recall Liakopoulos already have the signatures needed.

"The number they gave us, we surpassed," Garlough said. "I can't find any (signatures) that have anything that's not filled in or not the right person or anything like that."

Pat Garlough will ask to be a candidate to replace Liakopoulos in the event the commissioner is recalled, he said. A replacement candidate has to have the same number of signatures on a petition which can be handed in later, he said.

"We absolutely do not want the governor appointing somebody. We did not get as many signatures (for Pat) as we did for (Liakopoulos) because a lot of people are Democrats," Garlough said.

Another organizer of the recall, television talk show host Harley Kulkin, said news of the arrest energized the recall. Kulkin charged some people prior to the arrest were reluctant to sign the petition due to pressure from Republican Party officials.

"Now it's even more in favor. People are calling, wondering how they can sign it," Kulkin said.

Kulkin was in the audience when the Pahrump town board failed to pass an item last October, requesting that Liakopoulos' wife Sophia be appointed curator to a town veteran's memorial.

"When I saw how hard Laurayne was fighting for Peter, I knew they had some kind of a deal," Kulkin said.

Murray was Kulkin's opponent in the Nevada Assembly District 36 Democratic primary last year. Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said Murray passed a lie detector test in which she denied conspiring to appoint Liakopoulos' wife as curator in exchange for his favorable vote on the half-cent sales tax.