Legal Pad

Sandoval On His Apparently Winning Campaign

San Francisco county Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, running to unseat incumbent superior court Judge Thomas Mellon Jr., seems to have harnessed the Democratic surge for President-elect Barack Obama. As of 12:20 a.m. Wednesday morning, he was besting Mellon 54.8 to 44.6 percent.

Sandoval and local observers talk about the race, after the jump.

San Diego elects a new city attorney

The national blue wave of Democratic votes did not save San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre tonight.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Jan Goldsmith appears well on his way to ousting Aguirre, the first-term incumbent whose aggressive and sometimes abrasive tactics ticked off the City Council, labor unions, Republicans, the attorney general and many others.

A good night for judges, after the jump

Judges cheer as Prop. 5 loses

That loud exhaling sound you hear is a general sigh of relief from California's judges as polls show that Proposition 5 is heading toward defeat.

Prop 5 would have gutted the state's current three-tier sentencing system for nonviolent drug offenders and replaced it with one that offered defendants more chances at treatment, even after repeat run-ins with the law. Drug court judges were almost unanimous in their dislike of the initiative because it largely stripped their ability to order short jail stints as punishment. The California Judges Association also voted to oppose Prop 5, fearing that the additional hearings required by the measure would clog court operations.

None of the major public polling groups released numbers on Prop 5, so it was difficult to gauge its popularity coming into election night. But even opponents must be shocked to see that, in early results, the initiative is losing badly, with just 38 percent of voters saying "yes." This is a state, after all, where voters solidly backed treatment for low-level offenders when they passed Prop 36 eight years ago.

The measure's defeat was no doubt helped by a television ad featuring popular U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who urged voters to "say no to drug dealers." The ad was financed in part by a $1 million donation from the union representing state prison guards.

— Cheryl Miller

Prop. 8 leads in early returns

Update (12:30 a.m.): Prop 8 opponents are running out of time and votes. With 61.8 percent of precincts reporting, the initative is still ahead 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent. More than half of the vote is in now in Los Angeles County, where Prop 8 is leading. Coastal California is mostly voting against the initiative but inland counties like Fresno, Kern and Riverside are supporting it by wide margins.

It's still early. But with 29 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 8, the initiative that would ban gay marriage in California, is passing with 53 percent of the vote.

Frank Schubert, the director of the Yes on 8 campaign, told reporters a few minutes ago that while he's still cautious, he likes the way the polls are trending. And he credits a high turnout of African American and Asian American voters with his campaign's early success.

 "The Obama factor has actually driven pro-marriage voters to the polls," Schubert said.

Schubert also acknowledged that a court battle likely looms if the initiative passes. The Yes on 8 campaign contends that a victory — even if the election is not certified by the Secretary of State's office for weeks — means that the Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage would take effect at midnight tonight.

Quick Bay Area Judicial Race Update

It's a bit after 10 p.m. and we at Legal Pad are hearing screams of jubilation in the streets from the Obama victory, way out in the darn-near suburban parts of San Francisco! What better time for a rip-roarin' judicial race update?

Sandoval/Mellon, Hayashi/Daly, Ritchie/Liroff ... after the jump.

Report: Early voting troubles in Los Angeles

Update (4:48 p.m.): Election Protection lawyers say that as of 4 p.m. they've fielded more than 72,000 calls from concerned voters around the country, including 5,096 fromCalifornia. Los Angeles County continues to be the problem child in the state; 43 precincts are either running "very, very low" on ballots or have already run out, Neubauer said. Students at USC and UCLA have had trouble casting ballots because their names don't appear on out-of-date precinct lists, she said. Election Protection has several hundred volunteer lawyers staffing six call centers around the state.

It’s finally Election Day, but don’t plan on getting all your election results tonight.

Polling place troubles have already surfaced in Los Angeles County — home of the February primary “double-bubble” ballot trouble — according to leaders of Election Protection, a nonpartisan election watchdog group that includes 20 legal organizations.

Provisionally problematic polling, after the jump.

Candidate: Proud Attorney, Despite Foe's Tactics

Alyson Huber

Alyson Huber is an attorney, and frankly, she doesn’t care who knows it. Not even constituents of the 10th Assembly District, a somewhat conservative swath of the Central Valley and Sierra foothills where Huber is running as the Democratic candidate.

Huber’s press releases and even one of her television ads note that she is a Democrat and an attorney (our emphasis — and her opponent's).

The price of being a dreaded lawyer on the campaign trail, after the jump.

Matt Gonzalez is a Sock Puppet?

Poor Matt Gonzalez. The local civil litigator and independent vice-presidential candidate can’t get no respect.

It seems Gonzalez, despite appearing on millions of Americans' ballots with consumer activist and election ruiner affector Ralph Nader, is just not a household name.

This was proven over the weekend on a Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” skit (see below) featuring a cast member playing Nader and introducing a sock puppet named “Manuel” as his running mate.

Bingham Team to Deploy for Election Monitoring

Don’t try disenfranchising voters around William Kissinger.

On the eve of the 2004 election, the San Francisco Bingham McCutchen partner helped file a lawsuit in Ohio to prevent what he considered underhanded tactics aimed at affecting turnout.

This year he and almost 70 other Bingham attorneys (and other firms too — see our Cal Law story later tonight) will man polls and possibly file suits to help protect voters’ rights.

“The hope is that there won’t be anything” worthy of a lawsuit in Nevada, where the Bingham group is headed, he said, but Kissinger’s ready. After all, he’s done it before.

Gingrich On Judges, Pseudo-PC On Constitution

Some quick hits from the World Wide Web today, on timing and that S.F. wedding field trip, yet more I'm-a-PC spoofs, and one (tree-loving?) lawyer's attempt to unseat that tree-hating judge:

• Prop. 8 opponents gathered the press today to complain about supporters’ ads that insist schoolkids will learn all about gay marriage if the initiative fails. “Unfortunately the First Amendment allows you to air lies on television … and these are lies,” said Remcho, Johansen & Purcell partner Karen Getman. Asked about a San Francisco first grade class’s recent field trip to their lesbian teacher’s wedding, former state Superintendent of Schools Delaine Eastin said she “wished it hadn’t happened just because the timing was so terrible,” but noted that state law allowed parents to keep their kids on campus that day, and some did. “If anything it points to the strength of this law,” Eastin said.
• If you haven’t seen enough Prop. 8 ads, here’s one from Newt Gingrich decrying “judicial tyranny” in California by “four appointed lawyers –- that’s all judges are.” And here are several  from initiative critics spoofing Apple’s “I’m a Mac” commercials. Check out “Constitution.”
• Remember Judge Peter McBrien, the tree-hating (.pdf) Sacramento County Superior Court jurist who got slapped down by the Third District for walking off the bench midway through a divorce trial? He’s got competition on the November ballot. From a Third District staff attorney.
• California lawyers are going nuts over ACORN, voter fraud allegations and election litigation.
• And finally, if you’re going to campaign with The King, be sure to pay the tab. Otherwise you might end up in court.

—  Cheryl Miller