There wasn’t a lot of surprise when the pro-Schwarzenegger group Citizens To Save California announced this morning that they had begun submitting signatures on their budget process initiative known as “Live Within Our Means.”

The committee says it will end up having as many as 1,000,000 signatures by the time the submission process ends next week. CSC co-chair Allan Zaramberg today characterized it as “mission accomplished.”

But given that an initiative campaign at this juncture is really a county-by-county task… when is it fair to declare victory?

CSC officials admit it may actually be next Tuesday before all of their signatures are submitted to county elections officials across the state, who in turn verify those signatures and certify the totals to the Secretary of State.

But members of the the anti-Arnold, pro-labor committee Alliance For A Better California believe those budget initiative signatures will come in even later, so late as to possibly force Governor Schwarzenegger to push back his plans for a special election as far as December.

Opponents argue if the mission really were “accomplished”, why would the initiative still be on the streets this weekend for more signatures? (CSC officials confirm it’ll be on the street “in a few counties,” according to spokeswoman Joanne Monaco)

Zaremberg dismissed any notion that the signature gathering/verification process will thwart a November special election… and pointed to data from elections in years past as proof that the process of verifying signatures will not take anywhere near as along as critics suggest.

By the way, another reason we should all be thinking about getting into the petition business: CSC campaign manager Rick Claussen told reporters today that some workers might get as much as $4 per signature in the next few days. Labor unions claim they’ve heard the offer has topped $5… either way, it’s one of the priciest per-signature offerings ever in California.