California Attorney General's Race Characterized By Attacks
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- The campaign for attorney general has tarnished the reputations of rival prosecutors from California's two most prominent cities while eclipsing what could be a robust debate over their conflicting positions on environmental law, gay marriage and criminal justice.
Republican Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley built his career as a corruption fighter and prosecutor in high-profile cases, including those involving fugitive film director Roman Polanski and Michael Jackson's doctor. He has been a moderate voice when it comes to enforcing California's strict laws against sex offenders and career criminals.
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, a Democrat, evolved as a reformer, promoting policies and state laws aimed at the underlying social problems that lead to crime. She has shunned the death penalty, in keeping with her liberal city.
Questions over campaign contributions and some of their actions in office have overshadowed the different approaches they would take if elected to an office of enormous statewide—and often national—influence.
The state's current attorney general, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, sued the federal government over former President George W. Bush's refusal to accept state laws on auto emission standards. That helped prompt President Barack Obama's move this year to set nationwide standards.
Cooley created his office's Public Integrity Division after his election in 2000 and holds it up as a model. But he accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from people who were under investigation by that office, although they have not been charged. He also kept contributions from a Republican fundraiser convicted four years later of federal campaign finance fraud.
The developments were first reported by the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly, while the San Francisco Chronicle disclosed that Cooley accepted thousands of dollars worth of sporting-event tickets and other gifts from judges and attorneys.
Cooley said he properly reported all the gifts and contributions and denied any conflict.
Days after blasting Cooley for an "appearance of impropriety," Harris blamed an oversight by campaign aides for her failure to rid her campaign fund of $1,250 donated in 2006 by Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, a fugitive for 15 years from neighboring San Mateo County. Hsu was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison last year for fraud and breaking campaign finance laws.
She also has had to dismiss hundreds of criminal cases because of two San Francisco controversies. They include her offices' failure to disclose police officers' criminal or disciplinary histories to defense attorneys, although she said a proper policy is now in place. The attorney general's office has taken over the investigation of the second controversy, a tainted-evidence scandal at the San Francisco police drug laboratory.
"I think it's tainted both of them, particularly Cooley in the sense that he's targeted other politicians. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies.
Still, it is their policy positions that should decide who wins, Stern said.
Cooley, for example, supports the death penalty and is perceived as tougher on crime.
Harris' personal opposition to the death penalty has cost her support from law enforcement organizations, in large because she refused to seek the death penalty for the killer of an undercover San Francisco police officer in 2004.
She does have endorsements from individual police chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors. Like Brown, Harris said she would enforce the state's capital punishment law as attorney general, despite her own views.
"Being tough on crime can also mean being tough on the underlying causes of crime," she said.
She said she would continue to lock up murderers, sex offenders and other violent and serious felons, but has pushed for innovations in how her county and the state handle juveniles, drug addicts and nonviolent criminals.
Cooley won the Republican nomination despite fielding criticism for his reservations about portions of Jessica's Law, which targets sex offenders, and California's three-strikes law for repeat felons.
He raised early objections over the complications that have resulted from restricting where sex offenders can live, which often leaves them homeless. He also has rejected seeking life sentences for repeat felons unless their third strike is a violent or serious crime.
The pair agree in their opposition to Proposition 19, which would legalize recreational use of marijuana.
They sharply differ in their views on environmental law, including California's landmark efforts to fight global warming.
Harris has tried to rally opposition to Proposition 23 on the November ballot. The measure would suspend California's greenhouse gas emissions law until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters, which happens rarely.
Cooley will not take a position on the initiative, but criticizes the underlying 2006 law that requires the state to reduce emissions to 1990 levels over the next decade. Businesses that oppose the state law say it will impose costly burdens on them while encouraging employers to move jobs out of state.
"It may be misguided, it may be untimely, it may be bad for the economy, but it has passed into law," Cooley said.
Like Harris on the death penalty, Cooley said he would enforce the law if it remains intact.
Cooley also criticized Brown's use of lawsuits and legal threats to force more than a dozen cities and counties to take global warming into account when they consider development projects. That costs jobs, Cooley said.
He also would re-examine enforcement of the California Environmental Quality Act to see if delays and strict standards are driving businesses to other states. Plaintiffs who lose environmental lawsuits should have to pay the legal costs for both sides, he suggested, to deter suits filed simply to delay projects.
If elected, he would defend Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure outlawing gay marriages that was recently overturned by a federal judge.
Harris, like Brown and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said she could not defend what she believes is an unconstitutional violation of civil rights.
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