L.A.’s Steve Cooley Widens Lead Over S.F.’s Kamala Harris for CA Attorney General

Dec. 23, 2010 - PRLog -- The thrashing statement follows findings by Field Poll that Cooley leads in every region in the State except Harris’ own San Francisco Bay Area.  In Los Angeles, Cooley leads Harris by 11 percent and in the rest of Southern California by more 10 percent or more.  In a statement released Monday, the Cooley campaign touted that its candidate “continues to lead [the California Attorney General race] in every single poll - even Kamala Harris’.”

Both candidates became local prosecutors early in their careers: Harris served as an Alameda Deputy District Attorney beginning in 1990, and Cooley began his career with the L.A. County District Attorney’s office in 1973.  Cooley has never run for any other office besides that of L.A.D.A. and, now, California Attorney General.

As the Republican nominee, Cooley’s campaign forwards their D.A. as “a social moderate” who is tough on crime and a vehement advocate of the death penalty under appropriate circumstances.  Harris’ team credits the Bay Area prosecutor with raising the felony conviction rate from 52 percent in 2003, to 67 percent in 2006, and reigning in a remarkable 85 percent conviction rate for homicides.
The latest controversy surrounding D.A. Harris’ choice to publicly outright reject pursuing the death penalty against David Lee Hill, the now-convicted 2nd-degree murderer of SFPD Officer Isaac Espinoza, has brought unwanted public attention to Harris’ liberal capital punishment stance.  Age 47 and incarcerated without the possibility of parole, Hill fired an AK-47 automatic rifle at Officer Espinoza after believing the officer and his partner to be members of a rival gang.  A jury did not find Hill guilty of 1st Degree murder, and so a sentence of the death penalty could not have ensued even if sought by Harris’ office at the time.
Nevertheless, the premature timing of Harris’ announcement to forego seeking the death penalty—only three days after the officer’s murder and before he was even buried—has led to questions regarding whether she would uphold the death penalty as attorney general, and her judgment generally.  

The Sacramento Bee reports that, in Harris’ 2004 inaugural address for her current post, “She said she would never charge the death penalty.  Campaigning for attorney general,” Harris has stated that “she continues to oppose capital punishment but will vigorously enforce state law.”  
Given that a state’s attorney general is tasked from time to time with defending the state’s most controversial laws against claims of unconstitutionality on due process grounds, for example, it is difficult to imagine how an attorney general who personally believes that a certain law violates due process could arduously represent the state’s interest at trial against a challenge to the same.  Could the People ask for a disqualification of the A.G.?    
   
No word yet from the Cooley campaign regarding the subject; it appears that they may be content with everybody else doing the talking right now—especially the pollsters.  

By Zein E Obagi Jr l Legal Columnist

Read L.A. Professional Express Issue 1-15:   http://laprofessionalexpress.com/proexpress9-30.pdf