LOS ANGELES – Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (search) has not dropped the "no on recall" part of his campaign for governor, according to his campaign manager, going against an Associated Press story that asserted just the opposite, Fox News has learned.
"He's no on recall," Richie Ross (search), campaign manager for the lieutenant governor, told Fox News. "The AP story is wrong. In the last week, we've made a systematic effort to emphasize the positive attributes of Cruz's candidacy and that will continue. But he's still no on recall because he believes it's the right thing to do."
Ross acknowledged that Bustamante's emphasis on "no on recall" has diminished in recent days, but vehemently denied dropping the strategy entirely.
"If you live in the world we've lived in the last week and seen the negative coverage, you have to decide what to do and we've decided to push much more aggressively the positive aspects of Cruz," Ross told Fox News.
Ross did not deny that Bustamante has eased the "no on recall" part of his message.
"But it's a long way from people quibbling over how much we say 'no on recall' than saying we've abandoned 'no on recall' entirely," Ross said.
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