Legal Pad

Chris Kelly Gathers Retired Cops to Speak on Harris's Values

[Cheryl Miller]

Heading into the last weekend of campaigning before Tuesday's election, Attorney General candidate Chris Kelly has launched a new ad (which you can watch below) featuring three retired San Francisco police officers ripping into DA Kamala Harris, Kelly's chief rival in the Democratic primary.

"Take it from a cop who saw Kamala Harris up close," retired Officer Steve Marquez says in the 30-second spot. "She just doesn't share our values for fighting crime."

Two other officers accuse Harris of creating a revolving door for criminals — "even illegal immigrants" — in San Francisco.

A release from the Kelly campaign doesn't say where the ad will be airing, and a spokeswoman hasn't returned phone calls yet. The former Facebook executive poured another $2.45 million into his campaign Thursday night, so it's a fair bet that a lot of Californians will see it.

The ad's tone seems pretty harsh for a liberal Bay Area viewership, so one thought is that it's aimed at more moderate Democratic voters in Northern California and Central Valley markets. It'll be interesting to see how fast Harris can turn around a response with just three days left until the election.

UPDATE: Just heard back from Kelly campaign spokeswoman Robin Swanson, who says the plan right now is to keep the ad only on the Internet. "We could have it airing in targeted markets" at some point, she added.

Chris Kelly Raises, then Spends, Big Time Money

[Cheryl Miller]

Those political ads clogging the airwaves these days may be annoying, but they're also expensive. Just ask Chris Kelly.

The Democratic candidate for attorney general spent $8.95 million between March 18 and May 22, according to records his campaign filed with the Secretary of State’s office. Presumably those millions were spent on all those TV ads that pop up frequently during the six o’clock news and Late Night with David Letterman (at least here in Sacramento).

All that spending left the former Facebook privacy guru with just $102,984 left in his campaign coffers on May 22. Of course, since Kelly has already poured almost $10 million in personal wealth into his AG effort, writing another big check shouldn’t be a problem. Unless, of course, Kelly is afraid that rival Kamala Harris will smack him around again with claims that he illegally funded his campaign.

Speaking of Harris, here’s a look at the amount of money each of the Democratic candidates for AG reported raising between March 18 and May 22. 

Tyra's Eyes Will Be Smizing if Kamala Harris Wins the AG Race

[Pam Smith]

Kamala Harris has the wannabe model set all locked up in her bid to become California's next attorney general.

Tyra Banks is supporting her [hat tip to Marisa Lagos at SFGate's Politics Blog]. The supermodel-turned-mogul gushes of San Francisco's DA: "I hope one day she can even be the first female President!!!"

Now, I have to say Tyra's got business acumen. She started the America's Next Top Model franchise, then built up the Roman Empire of runway reality shows.

But nobody's perfect. It's hard to take Tyra seriously when she gets all earnest about "smizing" for 14 seasons running. (Seriously, has she trademarked this term yet? Cause she talks about it with everyone, from The New York Times Magazine to Larry King.) But (only very slightly) more pertinently --  Tyra's had a little trouble staying composed when somebody lets her down. Luckily for Kamala, Kamala is not the defeatist-attitude type. Phew.

Candidates Swoop On Kamala's Drama, With Cameras

[Kate Moser]

Earlier today, Recorder reporter Cheryl Miller mentioned AG candidate Chris Kelly’s web ad questioning San Francisco DA Kamala Harris's reaction to the crime lab scandal last month.

It appears that at least one of the AG candidates is looking to capitalize on that scandal and the rough news coming out of Harris’s office this week (free reg. req.). 

Though he wouldn’t specify which AG campaign he’s with, this guy (click photo to enlarge) was filming at Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s press conference yesterday. 

Here he is blending with the press outside San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo’s courtroom at the Hall of Justice this afternoon, just after a discovery hearing on crime-lab-related cases.

Kelly's First TV Ad: A Friend Request?

[Cheryl Miller]

We finally get a chance to see how AG candidate Chris Kelly is spending some of his $8 million in personal campaign contributions.

This new TV ad, which Kelly's campaign says will start airing statewide on Thursday, is more "Hi, I'm Chris Kelly" than anything else. 

There's no mention of fellow Democrat Kamala Harris, drug-sniffing lab technicians or even cops with criminal records — but that's probably coming to a TV set near you soon. (Kelly ran a web ad questioning Harris's reaction to the crime lab scandal last month.)

State Supreme Court Gets a New Bag

[Greg Mitchell]

The California Supreme Court will decide if cities must conduct an environmental study before banning  plastic shopping bags. In January, a Second District panel sided with an industry group on a 2-1 vote, saying the city of Manhattan Beach should have first determined the environmental impact of using more paper shopping bags. 

The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition says that paper bags take more energy to manufacture and transport. The S.F. Chronicle story quotes Coalition attorney Stephen Joseph, who wants the high court's ruling to show that "cities and counties shouldn't believe everything they hear from environmental groups."

Assembly Candidate Tarred with Trial Lawyer Taint

[Cheryl Miller]

Betsy Butler isn’t a trial lawyer. She isn’t even a lawyer.

But apparently the Assembly candidate’s past work as a fundraiser for the Consumer Attorneys of California carries enough of a taint to make her the target of a pro-MICRA group.

Californians Allied for Patient Protection is running TV ads against Butler, a Democratic candidate in the Los Angeles-area 53rd Assembly District. The spots -- watch a poor quality Quicktime version here -- call Butler a lobbyist’s “best friend” and sneer at her campaign contributions from “wealthy trial lawyers.” What’s worse, Butler is a “Sacramento hypocrite,” a hidden voice charges.

Why the hate? Butler’s work for the CAOC “is very key to what her philosophy is going to be if she’s elected to the state Legislature,” said CAPP executive director Lisa Maas. CAPP spent more than $108,000 on the ad’s production and air time.

Butler campaign consultant Parke Skelton said in a prepared statement that “corporate interests” are picking on the candidate because of her support for environmental and consumer protections.

CAPP reports five-figure contributions in March from the Cooperative of American Physicians and the California Medical Association, two groups eager to see California’s cap on medical malpractice awards stay put.

Butler took in plenty of money from the plaintiff bar -- her list of donors read like a Who’s Who of CAOC leaders -– but her filings also show donations from labor groups, incumbent Democrats and corporations like Boeing, Hewlett-Packard and Norcal Waste Systems.

Ironically, this left-leaning Assembly District has a slew of Democratic candidates running against Butler – including four lawyers -- most of whom would probably support the CAOC’s political agenda. CAPP hasn’t targeted any of them, yet.

As viewers are warned at the end of the Butler ad, “Stay tuned for more.”

John Eastman: A Loss Becomes a Victory, Con Law a Conservative Calling Card

[Cynthia Foster]

You all may have read Cheryl Miller's coverage of the court battles over attorney general candidate ballot designations. (If not, you're missing out. Click here, here, here, here and here [free reg. req.].) 

The hilarity, as one might expect, just does not stop. In a statement issued by John Eastman's spokesperson to the LAT blog PolitiCal, the Eastman camp miraculously manages to spin the court-ordered use of their third choice ballot designation as a victory. (Eastman had previously lobbied to be designated as "assistant attorney general." When Judge Allen Sumner said no, he shot for "special assistant attorney-general" and then "taxpayer advocate/attorney.")

"After a flurry of legal skirmishes, I'm happy to let you know that John Eastman's ballot designation will be "Constitutional Law Attorney." This is an extremely strong ballot designation and will clearly set John apart from the other candidates in the race. John is the clear conservative candidate in this contest, a fact emphasized by our approved ballot designation."

That also reads a bit like he's saying Constitutional Law Attorney screams conservative (Erwin Chemerinsky, anyone?) but, you know, whatever.

AG Candidates Agree: You Can't Smoke It Here

[Cynthia Foster]

One thing AG candidates Kamala Harris, John Eastman and Chris Kelly all agree on? Marijuana isn't like alcohol, and it shouldn't be regulated like it.

All three have come out against a November initiative that would legalize possession and consumption of marijuana for all adults over 21. The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, which counts activist and businessman Richard Lee as a main backer, goes much further than Prop 215, which legalized medical marijuana in the state in 1996. The measure would leave it up to cities and counties to determine taxation levels and regulations.

In interviews with the Bay Area Reporter, Kelly and Harris declared their support of medical marijuana, but expressed concerns with both the current system of regulation and the effects of legalization on society.

"I think that we have to make sure we have a regulatory regime in place around medical marijuana and compassionate use of marijuana before we consider any further steps toward decriminalization or legalization," Kelly said in a phone interview.

Eastman called the measure "ineffectual" and went on to say that "we can't make something legal here that is illegal under federal law."

Court Appearances on Ballot Designations

[Cheryl Miller]

The battle over ballot titles continues this week with word that attorney general candidate and LA DA Steve Cooley has sued to stop competitor Tom Harman from calling himself a prosecutor.

In filings with the Sacramento County Superior Court, Cooley said Harman has no business using “prosecutor/attorney/senator” as his ballot designation because the “prosecutorial” work stems only from Harman’s recent enrollment in an eight-week Orange County volunteer program that lets civil lawyers perform certain duties in the district attorney’s office. Harman is better known as a Republican state senator who represents California’s 35th District.

“Because ‘prosecutor’ is neither Harman’s profession, vocation, nor occupation, he cannot use the term as part of his ballot designation,” Cooley argued.