Pubdate: Wed, 10 Jan 2001
Source: Marin Independent Journal (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Marin Independent Journal
Contact:  150 Alameda del Prado, Novato, CA 94949
Website: http://www.marinij.com/
Author: Guy Ashley

DA RECALL ELECTION PROBABLE DESPITE FUROR

Despite some claims of election fraud in signature gathering, a special May 
election to determine whether District Attorney Paula Kamena should be 
recalled from office is probably inevitable, Marin County supervisors were 
told yesterday.

"There's not a reasonable likelihood that anyone could challenge those 
(recall) petitions and invalidate them," County Counsel Patrick Faulkner 
told the board.

Faulkner's view seemed to leave board members resigned to the notion that 
they will follow state election laws and officially schedule the recall 
election at their Jan. 23 meeting.

But before the board could take up additional matters, Supervisor Steve 
Kinsey blamed recall proponents for an election he called "a self-serving 
farce" that will cost county taxpayers an estimated $500,000.

"It's a tragedy that this is being foisted upon the citizens of this 
county," he said. "I certainly do not think that it will succeed" in 
recalling Kamena from office.

An alliance of family court critics and citizens opposed to Marin's 
marijuana prosecution policies turned in nearly 14,000 valid signatures to 
support the recall, more than enough to qualify it for a special countywide 
election in May.

If an election is called, voters will be asked if Kamena should be swept 
from office before her term ends at the end of next year.

News that Kamena likely will be Marin's first DA to face a recall vote has 
not sat easily with her supporters, some of whom have raised questions 
about the veracity of Kamena's opponents in mounting the recall drive.

Kinsey and other officials say they have been peppered with calls from 
constituents who said they signed the petitions after being told that they 
were supporting medical marijuana, not a district attorney recall.

Kamena has noted that petitions supporting her recall make no mention of 
medical marijuana, though the recall drive -launched by critics of her 
handling of a Novato child abduction case - appeared to be heading nowhere 
until the medical marijuana contingent entered the fray last summer with 
paid signature gatherers.

Lynnette Shaw, founding director of the Marin Alliance for Medical 
Marijuana, turned in the three boxes full of signed petitions on the day 
signatures were due last November.

Shaw has blasted prosecution guidelines Kamena instituted in medical 
marijuana cases as ineffective and a green light to law enforcement 
officers to seize all marijuana they find - and ask questions about medical 
necessities later.

Kamena said she is being unfairly targeted and that medical marijuana 
policies adopted by her office are among the most liberal in the state.

Shaw could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Marin's political and legal establishment has been roiled by the high cost 
of a recall election.

Michael Smith, Marin's registrar of voters, said the vote will cost 
taxpayers an estimated $500,000 because it will necessitate printing 
about150,000 ballots and ballot handbooks, and activating 114 polling places.

Despite the criticism, Faulkner told the Board of Supervisors yesterday 
that the recall election appears to be a done deal.

Asked by Supervisor Annette Rose if a legal challenge could be brought to 
halt the election, Faulkner said history has shown such tactics to be of 
little use.

He noted that state elections law does allow petition signees to have their 
signatures removed if they claim they were misled - but only before 
petitions are submitted and certified.

And while state law makes representing the contents of a petition a 
misdemeanor, Faulkner said, there is no legal provision that calls for 
signatures to be invalidated if obtained through these means.

The one case where petitions were invalidated by a court after their 
submission involved a heated ballot measure over a proposed new stadium for 
the San Francisco 49ers football team. In that case, Faulkner said, a state 
appeals court found "blatant falsehoods" in statements printed on petitions 
that prompted the court to invalidate the petitions altogether.

The complaints in this case focus on verbal statements signature gatherers 
may have made to people they approached in seeking signatures.

Faulkner said such statements could be construed as the type of "political 
speech" that traditionally is more protected than written words on 
petitions intended for certification by a government agency.

Kamena doesn't plan to mount a legal challenge, and is focusing her energy 
on a campaign to show her accomplishments in two years in office.

She has set up a campaign committee, co-chaired by Marin Sheriff Robert 
Doyle and Marin Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke, and said she 
already has rounded up endorsements from constituents ranging from the gay 
and lesbian group Spectrum to longtime Marin GOP leader Ed McGill.

She said she has gained pledges of support from prominent defense attorneys 
and all the attorneys in her office, in sharp contrast to the bitter 
divisions that split local prosecutors before the 1998 election in which 
she ran against a longtime colleague, John Posey.

Kamena won the election with nearly 56 percent of the vote. Posey garnered 
33 percent, while a third candidate, San Francisco prosecutor Dennis 
Cashman of Novato, gained 11.1 percent.

She said her accomplishments include her office's bolstered commitment to 
prosecuting domestic violence cases and her role in establishing a center 
where law enforcement officials gather to interview young victims of crime 
to minimize the trauma of putting these youngsters through multiple interviews.

"Of course I would rather not be in this position," Kamena said yesterday. 
"But I'm trying to keep a positive attitude. It's never a waste of time to 
show the people that you're doing a good job."
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