Capitol Beat: GOP Assembly candidates lining up cash
SAN RAMON CANDIDATES ALREADY LINING UP CASH

Mercury News Sacramento Bureau

Still seething

In the end, the San Mateo County elections office on Friday allowed Assembly candidate Richard Holober to list his endorsements on his official campaign statement.

But Holober was still seething over the election office's initial decision to forbid the endorsements - which include U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-San Francisco, the California Federation of Teachers and the California Nurses Association.

Holober, president of the governing board of the San Mateo County Community College District, is locked in a battle with San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill to replace Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-San Mateo. He said he suspects the elections officials were trying to do Hill a favor, and would have "gotten away with it if I hadn't caught them."

There are specific prohibitions against naming your opponent in your campaign statement, which is filed with county elections officials. But candidates who abide by spending limits are allowed by state law to list endorsers. Mullin himself did so in filing his campaign statement with the San Mateo elections office when he ran in 2002, as did Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, when he first ran for the Assembly in 2002.

The elections office, though, first told Holober he must prove their support by submitting sworn statements from Boxer and the others that they allowed him to use their endorsements - which the law does not require. When Holober turned them in, he was told he couldn't use the endorsements after all.

He was told that since state law doesn't expressly state candidates can use the endorsements, he couldn't.

Holober struck back quickly, accusing the elections office of trying to censor him. A visit from his attorney - with state code in hand - turned things around.

"We reviewed the code previously and saw that it was not allowable," said Elections Manager David Tom. "But when we received a letter from his attorney that cited other code sections in Proposition 34, we allowed it."

Proposition 34, a ballot measure setting new campaign spending limits, was approved by voters in 2000.

The sum of titles

The amount of energy - not to mention legal bills - that goes into parsing what's called the title and summary of a ballot measure seems infinite.

The reason? Political insiders know voters will often do no more than glance at the first description they see of the measure - the title - before deciding which way to vote.

That's why there was such exultation and angst after a state Superior Court judge ruled Friday that proponents of Proposition 98 would not have to change their title, which makes no mention of a provision that essentially would eliminate rent control in the state.

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