SACRAMENTO (AP) – Term limits have turned some former political allies into campaign foes as voters prepare to select nominees for 100 seats in the California Legislature.

In a half dozen races on the June 3 primary ballot, former lawmakers are trying to revive political careers that were at least temporarily interrupted by term limits.

Standing in their way are sitting lawmakers from their political party who are either running for re-election or trying to extend their terms by moving to the other house.

This year’s primary election battles also feature six other races in which candidates are trying to follow in the footsteps of family members or former family members and win legislative seats.

Party nominations for all 80 Assembly seats and 20 of the 40 state Senate seats will be at stake when voters go to the polls next month.

Voters in the 12th Senate District, which stretches from the San Joaquin Valley almost to Monterey Bay, also will decide whether to recall Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced. Last week, however, Democratic leaders abandoned their campaign against Denham less than three weeks before the election.

Democrats launched the recall drive after Denham refused to cast a deadlock-breaking vote last year for the state budget.

Even if the active campaign against Denham is abandoned, the recall question will remain on the ballot in his district. If it’s successful, it would leave Democrats in the Senate just one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass budgets, tax increases and emergency legislation, and to override gubernatorial vetoes.

Former Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, is running to replace Denham if voters decide to recall him.

Democrats in the Assembly still would need the votes of at least six Republicans to reach the two-thirds threshold.

For most voters, the legislative primaries will be ho-hum affairs featuring candidates running unopposed for their party nominations. Only about a third of the 100 districts have contested races, and in most cases, they involve only one party.

More than a dozen campaigns are shaping up as hotly contested, big-spending affairs with money pouring in from corporations, labor unions, Indian tribes, doctors and other special interests.

The primaries sometimes give those groups a better chance to shape the Legislature’s makeup than the general election because only a handful of districts are competitive in the fall. That’s because state lawmakers draw their own political boundaries, a system Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Common Cause and others hope to change by placing a redistricting measure on the November ballot. They say the current system represents a conflict of interest.

The importance of party primary races has led business groups to intervene in Democratic contests in support of the most conservative candidate and teachers and other labor groups to venture into Republican races looking for moderates to back.

This year is likely to be no exception.

“I think the stakes for business in this election are very high, and you will see an active effort from the business community to go out and help Democrats who both understand business issues and will help to build the economy for the future of California,” said Rob Lapsley, executive director of JOBSPAC, a California Chamber of Commerce campaign committee.