Election mystery: Maxine Waters committee opposed new chief justice (w/ commie mailer)

SF Gate ^ | 11/12/10 | Bob Egelko

[Libloather]

Election mystery: Maxine Waters committee opposed new chief justice
By Bob Egelko
November 12 2010 at 06:15 PM

There were no surprises in the voters' decision Nov. 2 to retain every state Supreme Court and appellate justice on the ballot, nearly all with majorities of at least 2-1. Still, there's one small but baffling mystery related to the judicial election: a Democratic congresswoman's call for the defeat of Republican-appointed justices, including Chief Justice nominee Tani Cantil-Sakauye.

Citizens for Waters, the slate mail committee affiliated with Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, sent cards to her constituents in the heavily African American district endorsing various candidates, who paid for their listings. The mailer also urged votes against Cantil-Sakauye, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pick to replace retiring Chief Justice Ronald George; Justice Ming Chin, appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson, and nine Republican-appointed members of the Court of Appeal in Los Angeles.

Democratic appointees, including Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, received endorsements, as did appellate Justice Jeffrey Johnson, a Schwarzenegger appointee who is African American. As the Los Angeles Metropolitan News-Enterprise noted in the only press report on the mailer, none of the judicial endorsements was paid for -- not surprising, since there was no organized campaign for or against any of the justices.

The mailer obviously didn't tip the election, though it might have had a local impact because Cantil-Sakauye and Chin each polled two to three percentage points lower in Los Angeles County than statewide. What's harder to decipher is why Waters, whose work has virtually nothing to do with the state courts, would be the only major-party politician in California to publicly oppose any of the justices.

[Logical me]

Anyone ever listen to this dim bulb? Her elevator is stuck on the first floor ready to fall to the basement. She is a stone nut.

[shove_it]

Ping

Here’s how a commie organizes a “boot the judges out” campaign.

[NonValueAdded]

Candidates paid her for the endorsement??? Is that what the article said? Add that to the charges, no?

[Lancey Howard]

Maxine Waters is the ultimate affirmative action legislator.

[Movemout]

Sheila Jackson-Lee gets my vote

[Jacquerie]

Iowa was just the beginning. I look forward to more lefty judicial scalps in 2012. We have a huge conservative majority in FL; judges beware.

[terycarl]

Sheila Jackson-Lee gets my vote

If you took these two, added together their I.Q’s, you would be nowhere near room temperature