On the slippery slope of the campaign trail, GOP gubernatorial contender Meg Whitman says if elected she will only appoint judges who favor the death penalty.
From the LA Times' Seema Mehta: "Whitman has been invoking the specter of (Rose) Bird for months. Brown appointed Bird when he was governor in the 1970s, and she served as chief justice for a decade. She was a controversial pick from the beginning because she lacked experience as a judge. Her appointment came as the courts were weighing new efforts to reinstate the death penalty."
"She voted to overturn capital cases 64 times, leading to a campaign to oust her that featured the families of crime victims. Two-thirds of voters cast ballots to remove Bird, and she became a symbol for a soft-on-crime mentality."
Our two favorite subjects -- sex and politics -- come together in poll results that show ideology trumps gender, an important fact when you have two women as top GOP contenders. The LAT's Cathleen Decker reports.
"All told, the results of both surveys confirmed that ideology, not gender, is directing the vote in this tumultuous campaign season. The candidates in question are being seen as Republicans who happen to be women, rather than women who happen to be Republicans — a key distinction in a Democratic-tilting state."
"More than anything, it's party registration and ideology, and every Republican candidate knows that coming in," said GOP pollster Linda DiVall, a co-conductor of the survey for The Times and the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. "That's why character is so important."
And continuing with women, the Chronicle's Carolyn Lockhead sees the U.S. Senate battle between Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina as a dead heat.
"The Republican woman who has the best chance to win in California on Nov. 2 is not billionaire Meg Whitman, who has spent more than $140 million of her own money to make sure every living thing knows who she is. It's Carly Fiorina, another former Silicon Valley CEO with thinner pockets but a looser campaign style who has drawn incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer into a dead heat."
Even as Fiorina piggybacks on Whitman's high-tech ground operation to mobilize voters, her campaign is betting that she won't be sucked down with Whitman should the former eBay CEO lose the race for governor to Democrat Jerry Brown."
Meanwhile, the campaign to block California's law to curb greenhouse gases gets a high-octane infusion of cash from two Texas oil companies. The Bee's Rick Daysog has the story.
"Two of the biggest backers of the effort to suspend the state's landmark climate change law contributed $1.5 million last week to the rollback initiative. But with about a week to go before the election, the Proposition 23 campaign appears to be losing the fundraising battle by a 3-to-1 ratio."
"On Friday, San Antonio-based refiner Valero Energy Corp. contributed $1 million to the Yes on 23 campaign, bringing its total contributions to the controversial ballot initiative to nearly $5.1 million, according to filings with the California secretary of state's office.Tesoro Corp., another San Antonio-based refiner, chipped in $500,000 on Friday, bring its total to $2 million."
The statewide ballot isn't the only thing before voters next week. Up and down California, local governments are pondering various public pensions proposals. The Chron's Heather Knight reports.
"From the beach towns of Carlsbad and Pacific Grove to agricultural Bakersfield, from Redding up north to Riverside down south, Californians will decide about a dozen local pension initiatives - more than the state's voters have ever faced at once."
"While San Francisco's Proposition B to require city employees to pay more for their pensions and health care benefits is getting the most attention, voters around the state are suddenly interested in what has long been considered an eye-glazing topic reserved for wonky budget analysts at City Hall."
And finally, this time on a serious note, we attend the services for Sen. Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, who died last week at the age of 53.
From Paul Eakins of the Long Beach Press: "The crowd of about 550 people included many local and state officials, such as Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster and several current and former members of the Long Beach council, state legislators and others.The mood was somber at times, but largely a joyful and frequently humorous event."
"Oropeza was "an irreplaceable loss to the Chicano/Latino community," said Ron Arias, director of the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services."She always remembered her roots," Arias said. "What drove Jenny was a deep passion to serve."
Adios, Jenny....