DENHAM ASSAILS RECALL FOE
SACRAMENTO - The campaign for State Sen. Jeff Denham, who faces a recall election in June, called Thursday for a criminal investigation into Senate leader Don Perata's efforts to oust him from office.
The campaign accuses Perata, D-Oakland, of trying to use public employees and the Capitol e-mail system in the recall effort.
The recall campaign fired back with charges that Denham's staff misused the Capitol e-mail system to recruit volunteers and that the GOP senator inappropriately posted more than a dozen press releases written by his official staff on his political Web site.
"These are ridiculous" charges, Denham campaign spokesman Kevin Spillane said. "They are attempting to cover up their own systematic efforts to abuse state employees and (the state) e-mail."
Perata spokesman Jason Kinney denied any violations of the law had occurred and said Denham is trying to divert attention from his problems with constituents that led to the recall.
"I would say the whole thing is campaign-driven political silliness," Kinney said. "There is no evidence of anything close to criminal violations."
A consulting firm linked to Perata helped finance and support the recall campaign, also backed by the California Democratic Party, that collected 60,000 signatures to put the issue on the June 3 primary ballot.
Criminal complaints filed
The Friends of Jeff Denham Against the Recall said it filed criminal complaints against Perata with the attorney general and the Sacramento County district attorney. Kinney said the recall campaign is contemplating possible complaints of its own.
The Denham complaints target a written reprimand from Perata to Democratic senators whose top staff members didn't show up at a campaign organizing meeting and an e-mail from a Perata consultant seeking translation of a recall campaign script by a Senate employee.
Specifically the April 17 Perata letter to unnamed senators said that chief's of staff were "no-show(s)" at an "off-campus" meeting where "campaign staff" reviewed the "'demand list' of services needed between now and June 3rd."
"This is not an optional activity," the message concluded.
The e-mail with a request for translation of a campaign script went from an employee of Polka Consulting, which has ties to Perata and the state Democratic Party, to a Spanish language translator employed by the Senate, who apparently thought it was from Denham's office and responded to one of his Senate employees.
"You know, I can't make any translation dealing with the campaign since it may constitute a conflict of interest," wrote translator Fortuna Clark. She also cc'd the Senate personnel director.
The Denham campaign called for an investigation into whether the e-mail violates state law prohibiting unofficial use of public resources and accused Perata of a felony for using his power as Senate leader to demand Senate staff participate in campaign work.
Two active Senate campaigns now under way are the Denham recall and a Democratic primary contest in San Francisco.
'No violation of law'
Kinney said Perata has a strict policy of keeping Senate and campaign work separate, adding that it was successful in the e-mail incident since Clark refused to do the translation.
"There was no violation of the law," Kinney said.
As for the Perata message, Kinney said there are a "lot of different ways to interpret the letter.
"They are giving you the most cynical interpretation possible," he added.
The Perata campaign released an e-mail from Denham campaign manager John Franklin that Kinney said went to Senate GOP employees seeking volunteers to walk precincts for Denham. But Kinney said he couldn't release the names of any recipients because they could lose their jobs.
"Do not reply to this message from a government account," the Franklin e-mail said.
Spillane said there is "no comparison" between the Denham complaints and the recall campaign charges that offered only the Franklin e-mail seeking volunteers.
"It's not illegal for them to receive e-mail," Spillane said of GOP employees, adding that Franklin had no power to pressure for participation, unlike Senate leader Perata.
He also dismissed the complaint about Denham's Senate press releases being posted on the campaign Web site, which the recall campaign said have been removed, as "grasping at straws."
The criminal violations alleged by Denham carry penalties of fines and prison time. Kevin Spillane, a spokesman for Denham, said he doesn't expect the complaints to be fully addressed before the election.
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