Denham says he'll keep campaigning

State Sen. Jeff Denham said Thursday he intends to campaign through Election Day despite Senate leader Don Perata's decision to drop his bid to recall the Merced lawmaker.

On the day after Perata made his surprise announcement in what he said was an effort to jump-start state budget talks with Republicans, the campaign was still running television ads.

Campaign spokesman Paul Hefner said television stations were notified Wednesday night "to pull the ads immediately."

But he said it was taking time to get the word out because Denham's sprawling 12th Senate District has three television markets: Sacramento, Fresno and Salinas-Monterey.

Even after Perata's about-face, the recall will remain on the June 3 ballot – making it possible, though more unlikely, that the Atwater Republican could still be unseated.

"I'm glad to see that some of the partisanship has gone away," Denham said of Perata's decision. "But at the same time, I'm on the ballot."

Denham said that besides running ads, the recall campaign still has billboards up. He plans to run a new round of ads to counter some of the $1.4 million in media buys his campaign estimates the recall campaign made in recent days.

Perata, D-Oakland, launched the recall campaign last year after Denham joined fellow Republicans in a 53-day budget impasse. By unseating Denham, Democrats would move to within one vote of being able to pass a budget and raise taxes without GOP support.

But with the state facing a budget deficit of $16 billion to $20 billion – and with another budget standoff looming – Perata told reporters after Thursday's Senate session it was "the wrong time" for a recall that angered Republicans. "With our pulling out, (Denham) should be in safe harbor," he said.

Denham said he appreciated assurances. "But I'm hopeful that as this thing moves forward … he'll continue to send a message that this was the wrong way to go," he said.

Monterey County Supervisor Simon Salinas, a former Democratic assemblyman, is the only candidate on the ballot to replace Denham.

Salinas, who said Perata never called him to tell him he was dropping the recall, suspended his campaign Thursday.

He said he would not drop out of the race until conferring with "local advocates" to determine whether he should go forward with his campaign.

"Sixty-thousand-plus people asked for the recall," Salinas said, referring to the number of signatures putting the measure on the ballot. "A lot of people are upset by what's happened."

The recall campaign received more than $300,000 from the Democratic Party and from committees associated with Perata to gather signatures.

Perata said he believes the money will yield results for Democrats after Denham is termed out of office in 2010.

"Most of our efforts have gone into voter registration, and we've now made this a solid Democratic district," Perata said. "So two years from now, I'm quite confident a Democrat will hold the seat."

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• Call Aurelio Rojas, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5545.