The team of Republican political consultants that worked together to defeat Proposition 93 has reunited to oppose the recall of Sen. Jeff Denham.
And they’re coming out firing.
"I was very proud to be part of defeating Don Perata's last power grab and I am very proud of being part of helping defeat Don Perata’s latest power grab," said Kevin Spillane, the Republican spokesman for the No on 93 campaign and now for Denham.
Denham's longtime political strategist is Tim Clark of JohnsonClark Associates, which created the television ads for the No on 93 campaign.
Mark Bogetich, a Republican researcher who worked on the No on 93 effort has also joined Denham's campaign, Spillane said.
"The band's back together," said Spillane, who, picking up where he left off, lobbed some nasty words towards the Senate leader, calling Perata a "ethically challenged, petulant power grabber who's upset he couldn't bully an independent senator into voting the way that he wanted."
Meanwhile, the recall, which originated last summer when Denham joined the rest of his Senate Republican Caucus during a 50-plus day budget holdout, is inching closer to qualifying for the ballot.
The recall campaign, funded by the Democratic Party and a campaign committee linked to Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, turned in more than 61,000 signatures last month, nearly double the 31,084 needed to qualify.
On Monday evening, the Secretary of State's Office reported that four of the five counties in Denham's district have completed a random sampling of the recall petition signatures. The sole remaining county, Monterey, needs only a 43 percent projected validity rate to qualify the recall (the other four counties signature validity rates ranged from 55.8 to 67 percent).
The recall is the linchpin for Democratic hopes, however faint, to gain a two-thirds majority in the state Senate, where they currently hold 25 of 40 seats.
Democrats let the March 7 filing deadline for legislative seats pass by without putting up a challenger to Sen. Abel Maldonado, the moderate Santa Maria Republican in the most marginal GOP seat in the state. Maldonado, who spent millions to win his seat in 2004, will now waltz to reelection in November.
To pick up the necessary two seats for a two-third majority, then, Democrats would need to both successfully recall Denham and win the seat of termed-out Sen. Tom McClintock.
Former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Democrat, is running for that seat against former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, a Republican, in what's expected to be a hotly contested race in November.
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