Paul Hefner, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, is taking issue with a line in the radio ad Sen. Jeff Denham is running to defend himself from a recall attempt.
The ad, released Friday, says: "When a public official is guilty of malfeasance or criminal conduct in office, the California Constitution provides for the right to recall."
While it's true that public officials can be recalled for malfeasance or criminal conduct, the ad seeks to leave the impression that those are the only grounds allowed. In fact, the California Constitution is deliberately vague on the question.
The applicable section says: "Recall of a state officer is initiated by delivering
to the Secretary of State a petition alleging reason for recall. Sufficiency of reason is not reviewable."
In defending the ad, Denham political consultant Kevin Spillane argued that "political scientists and legal officials" have reached a wide consensus that the use of recall should be rare.
"This is actually an abuse of the recall process, used in rare cases," he said. "Just because you don't like an election result, it doesn't mean that you get to have a do-over."
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