Senate District 12

Stop Don Perata’s power play

Reject the recall of Senator Jeff Denham

By Sasha Tooryani

From the May 2008 Print Edition

In the June 3 election, State Senator Jeff Denham, R-Merced, faces a recall on his district’s ballot. His crime is simply being a Republican senator in the state of California.

The man responsible for leading the recall is State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, who is accusing Denham of causing a 52-day delay in last year’s California budget approval by voting against it. Yet all but one of the GOP senators in California also rejected the budget.

Denham accuses the recall of being retaliation for his refusal to vote for the budget, and cites that the reason he did not vote for the $145 billion state budget was that it was not balanced. After Denham’s rejection of deficit spending, Perata proceeded to remove him from the Senate Government Organization Committee and gather more than 60,000 signatures to create a recall for the June ballot. More than $300,000 was spent gathering signatures to support the recall.

Denham serves the Senate District, which includes Madera, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, and Stanislaus counties. A selfproclaimed moderate, he was elected to the Democratic-leaning district in 2002 and re-elected with 60 percent of the vote in 2006.

Perata has accused Denham of taking a pay raise, changing his political orientation, and voting against education in the state. Yet these allegations are false: Denham actually helped Perata financially repair the Oakland Unified School District in 2003. Denham also is one of the lowest-paid senators because he has refused some pay raises.

Perata has launched a political war with Denham and begun a TV campaign to support his recall. The TV ad accuses Denham of spending government money on private vacations in Arizona and Las Vegas. The negative political ads that damage his credibility as a politician are cheap and just plain deceptive to voters.

Denham is engaging in a counterattack by suing Perata for unethical methods, including bribing public officials and using taxpayer dollars to initiate the recall. He also accuses Perata of pressuring public officials to precinct-walk for him. Denham has also spent $150,000 on counter-ads.

Yet Perata himself is guilty of spending more than $1 million on hospitality suites and gifts, according to the some newspapers.

Other suspicious activity associated with Perata is currently under investigation by the FBI, such as engaging in conflict-ofinterest relationships. He has also taken funding from Indian tribes to promote Indian gambling. For someone with such a history, these allegations are clearly an act of hypocrisy.

Why is Perata so eager to oust Denham? For one, his district has 46 percent Democrats to 36 percent Republicans. Denham’s absence would give Perata the 27th Senate vote for tax increases and he would be able to pass the budget with a veto-proof twothirds majority.

This is the case because the only candidate running to replace Denham is a Democrat, Supervisor Simon Salinas, who defeated Denham by a 9- percent margin in a 2000 Assembly race. Salinas has been known to have “taken a walk” by skipping important votes such as protecting citizens’ financial privacy.

Denham’s track record is solid. As a veteran of Desert Storm and Operation Restore Hope, he is a hero to the country. In Sacramento, he reduced government waste and advocated against tax increases.

Perata’s case against Denham is both frivolous and moneyconsuming. Even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called the recall “ridiculous.” Schwarzenegger stated, “Denham has served his community well.”

Denham’s recall demonstrates the excessive partisanship in Californian politics. The polarity between Democrats and Republicans is only being further exacerbated by the recall issue. Perata’s attack on Denham is merely marginalizing conservatives even further in this state, in which Democrats already outnumber Republicans 25-15 in the Senate.

Perata has a reputation for bullying officials through intimidation. This case is just another act of political coercion.

A government official should only be recalled due to negligence or acts of dishonesty. This case does not fall into this category. Yet there is hope to stop this unwarranted attack, as only 9 out of 120 recall cases have been successful. The last time a person from the Legislature was recalled was 1995.

Governor Gray Davis was recalled in 2003 for his dismal performance on California’s economy. His incompetence was clear grounds for removal, and warranted such an exercise of justice.

The money and time wasted on Perata’s recall effort only further distracts voters from the real issues at hand. The mismanagement of public money makes Perata the cheat, not Denham.

Denham should remain in office to preserve the integrity of California’s political system. Political intimidation from a public official is unacceptable and voters should never have to make such a recall decision. This act is an abuse of our legal system by Perata’s corrupt agenda.

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