Dan Walters: Denham recall drive motivation still hazy

Sacramento Bee ^ | 6/23/8 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

The abortive effort to recall Republican state Sen. Jeff Denham this year will occupy a niche in the history of California political oddities.

The Democratic leader of the Senate, Don Perata, launched the recall drive last year after Denham joined other Republican senators, save one, in blocking passage of the state budget for weeks, contending that it was dangerously out of balance.

The supposed rationale for the recall drive against Denham, a second-termer whose district sprawls over a multicounty swath of Central California farmland, was that he had betrayed promises to be a moderate. And Perata dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into circulating recall petitions and exhorting 12th Senate District voters to turn Denham out of office.

The recall contrasted sharply with Perata's treatment of Abel Maldonado, the one Republican senator who broke ranks to vote for the budget. Even before the budget dust-up, Perata stripped Denham of the Agriculture Committee chairmanship and handed it to Maldonado, then apparently discouraged any Democratic challenge this year to Maldonado. The lack of a Democratic candidate in the 15th District, which is potentially winnable by a Democrat, irritates left-wing party activists.

The recall drive, however, never gained traction among actual voters. Many prominent Democrats in the 12th SD, as well as newspaper editorialists, denounced it as a cynical power grab. A few weeks before the June 3 election, Perata abandoned the campaign and Denham easily survived. And for months, Capitol insiders have speculated about Perata's motives.

He says, "I did it to get a 26th vote for the budget," apparently in anticipation that 2008 would be another difficult budget year. There are 25 Democrats in the 40-member Senate, and it takes 27 votes to pass a budget or impose a new tax..

[SmithL]

PeRATa Ping

[newzjunkey]

Another frightening misuse of power by our Democrat overlords.