Thursday, Mar. 20, 2008

The signatures are counted; Denham recall will go to vote

Democrats set the stage for June 3 contest for Senate seat.

By SCOTT JASON
sjason@mercedsun-star.com

It's on.

Voters will be asked if state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, needs be recalled, and if so, who should take his place.

The recall effort, spearheaded by Democrats because of his opposition to last year's budget, has enough signatures to go before voters, the Secretary of State's Office announced Tuesday.

Monterey County, the final county within District 12 that was tallying petitions, reported 6,829 valid signatures, bringing the total to 35,820. That's 1,627 more signatures that the backers needed.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must put the issue on a ballot 60 to 80 days from today. The June 3 election falls within that time range.

Denham was unavailable for comment.

The stage is now set for Democrats to back a candidate they believe will be able to take over District 12, an area that has more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Last week, Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse II said he was approached by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata to run against Denham.

Morse, who ran for Assembly in 1996 and lost to Dennis Cardoza, said he hasn't been asked to respond to the offer.

He did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

Another possible candidate is Monterey County Supervisor Simon Salinas, who served in the Assembly from 2000 to 2006.

While the state deals with an estimated $16 billion budget deficit, Denham must campaign for his seat against Democrats eager to snatch it.

Kevin Spillane, Denham's anti-recall campaign spokesman, pointed to the effort's Sacramento ties and said the will of the voters in District 12, who elected the state senator will not be overturned.

"The recall is unjustified and not based on Denham's performance in office," he noted.

"It's based on a personal agenda of an Oakland politician who doesn't like that Jeff Denham is an independent representative for his district."

The state senator showcased his independence in July when he refused to be the single vote needed to pass the budget.

While he refused to budge, the recall campaign was launched by a private committee to increase voter registration with ties to Perata and the state's Democratic Party.

Denham's opponents considered his no-vote tantamount to not wanting to fund schools, highway improvements and levy repairs.

Paul Hefner, the recall campaign's spokesman, was unavailable for comment, but the "Dump Denham!" campaign released a statement after the effort qualified.

"The voters have caught on to Jeff Denham -- they're recalling him for the same reasons people take unsafe toys off the shelf and tainted meat out of supermarkets -- because they're no good, and because we deserve better," the statement read.

The recall looked as though it might cause a hand-count of the petitions because Stanislaus County reported a much smaller number of signatures than would be expected.

It reported 10,144 valid signatures Friday, about a third of the raw number submitted by recall proponents.

However, that figure increased to 15,699 Monday when an error in the number of duplicate signatures discovered earlier was corrected.

Reporter Scott Jason can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or sjason@mercedsun-star.com.

The final tally

MADERA COUNTY: 1,203

MERCED COUNTY: 10,063

MONTEREY COUNTY: 6,830 SAN BENITO COUNTY: 2,025 STANISLAUS COUNTY: 15,699

TOTAL: 35,820

MINIMUM NEEDED: 34,193

Source: Secretary of State's Office