California: Perata still trying to 'Dump Denham'?

Contra Costa Times ^ | May 18, 2008

[John Jorsett]

SACRAMENTO — Less than a week after Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said he shut down his bid to have Sen. Jeff Denham removed from office, the Oakland Democrat's Leadership California ballot committee transferred $110,000 to the recall campaign.

Perata's campaign says the money is intended only to pay outstanding bills. It claims it has ended all "Dump Denham" advertising, cleared its Web site of all campaign information and begun to take down billboards and signs in Denham's sprawling, rural district that spans from Modesto to Monterey.

Denham's campaign, however, accused Perata of waging a stealth campaign to oust the Merced Republican, allowing the state Democratic Party to continue its campaign while Perata appears to stay on the sidelines in the run-up to the June 3 primary election.

"We're still seeing signs not consistent with shutting down," said Kevin Spillane, a spokesman for Denham. "The question is, is this a bait-and-switch effort by Perata, claiming to be out of the recall and pulling strings from behind the scenes? There's growing evidence that might be the case."

A spokesman for Perata denied the allegations.

"Look at any campaign, and it always has bills that have to get paid that come in after election day," Perata spokesman Paul Hefner said. "The difference is we're doing it before the election. We still have obligations to pay vendors. We added up the outstanding bills and they came to that ($110,000) amount.".

Perata said last week that he was dropping the recall bid, claiming he did not want the partisan tensions engendered by the effort to hinder budget negotiations that were about to begin as the state tries to climb out of a $17.2 billion deficit.

Leadership California is a ballot measure committee controlled by Perata.

[pogo101]

Interesting. It’s impossible to tell whether Don “The Godfather” Perata is telling the truth about the money being to pay outstanding bills. As Aesop teaches, No one believes a liar, even when he is telling the truth.