It is well known statewide that the recall attempt currently taking place against State Senator Jeff Denham is political gamesmanship being driven and promoted by lame-duck outgoing Senate President Pro-Tem Don “The Golden Pig” Perata. Why is he so intent on pushing this recall (besides the big bucks allegedly involved for his girlfriend)? Well, can you count to THREE?
1) Perata has sour grapes because Proposition 93 failed, with help from Jeff Denham, and it means Perata has to retire this year. The naked power-grab to weaken term-limits was rejected by California voters.
2) Perata has the maturity of a four-year-old, and Denham has been too often willing to criticize the thin-skinned liberal Senate President.
3) This year’s state budget. Last year, Denham was very high-profile in his leadership within the Senate Republican Caucus in opposing the bloated budget that was being pushed by Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats. In fact, Denham opposed the budget deal all the way to the end. Ultimately, he and the others who voted no were vindicated as our state’s fiscal mess is proof that there was far too much overspending in the 2007-2008 budget. But that doesn’t matter to Sacramento liberals, who want to raise taxes to deal with their overspending. They feel that defeating Denham would go a long way towards eliminating the fiscally conservative Senate Republican Caucus from the budget debate.
No one is more vested in raising taxes this year than the unions. After all, even though the Governor’s proposal for across-the-board cuts is now starting to look like only a modest first-step towards necessary cuts in spending, unions have only one agenda – grow their size and increase salary and benefits for their members – which in the case of public employee unions, those increases in benefits come straight out of the pockets of taxpayers. Right now we need to be looking at cut-backs and figuring out how to trim an out-of-control public employee pension system that is so lavish that it isn’t even funny.
The unions know that if the recall of Jeff Denham is successful, it would go a long way towards bludgeoning Sacramento Republicans, and furthering efforts to push through BILLIONS in tax increases.
This is why (h/t to Hank Shaw at the Stockton Record) the unions have stepped up their financial support for outstanding Denham to staggering levels – contributing $750,000 in just the last two days alone. Hank Shaw reports that AFSCME ponied up $300,000 on Tuesday, and then yesterday the California State Council of Service Employees dropped in a cool $450,000! I am sure we can expect a lot more as this battle becomes central to the future of California’s fiscal health and sanity.
Take away from this blog post – if you haven’t stepped up to help fight off the Denham Recall, your priorities are in need of an adjustment. This IS ground zero. Click here and make a difference.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Reading this story, I am reminded of the bitter defeat of Prop. 75 in ’05.
It is very difficult (absurd, really) to believe that the average municipal, county or state employee is aware of Jeff Denham or why there is a recall campaign. In spite of this ignorance, these same average public workers are spending about $2 each on a campaign that most are completely unaware of; a campaign where the outcome – recalled/not recalled – has no direct impact to the average public employee’s contract, workplace conditions or benefits.
The leaders of public employee unions are not the “average workers.” In many cases, the public union leadership is “elected” by less than 5% of employees they represent, yet they assume the power to speak (and spend the unions dues) for 100% of local, county and state workers. The union leadership is in the bag for Perata. For those leaders, having Perata’s favor is more important than the welfare of their fellow public servants.
The worst part is: The average public employee in completely unaware that their money and first amendment free speech is being exercised for them by the union leadership. In many cases, contrary to the individual worker’s political preference. Prop. 75 would have corrected this injustice and preserved constitutional protections for all workers.
Jim Prunty