Jerry Brown's wording may trip up Prop. 8

Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross

Sunday, October 26, 2008

If same-sex marriage survives next week's ballot challenge, it will largely be due to state Attorney General Jerry Brown.

It was Brown's office that decided on the final ballot description for Proposition 8, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian weddings.

And by changing the way the measure was framed in its title and summary, Brown just might have tipped the balance in what looks to be a close election.

Here's the story:

Prop. 8 asks voters to affirm that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" - a concept that voters overwhelmingly backed when they approved Proposition 22 in 2000.

Voters still favor the traditional definition of marriage, 49 to 47 percent, according to the most recent Public Policy Institute of California poll.

However, in the wake of the state Supreme Court decision in May legalizing same-sex marriage, Brown worded Prop. 8's ballot description to specify that it "eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry."

The proponents' original title for Prop. 8 was "Limit on Marriage." What voters see on their ballot pamphlet, thanks to Brown, is, "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry."

Prop. 8 supporters accused Brown of playing politics and went to court.

They lost. The new language went on the ballot, and pollsters said support for the ban dropped by eight points - with the most recent PPIC survey showing 52 percent of likely voters now opposing the ban.

"It all depends on how you ask the question," said Sacramento pollster Jim Moore of J. Moore Methods.

"When you ask people what they believe, you get one answer," he said. "But when you ask someone to take away something from somebody else, it seems unfair."

Field Institute pollster Mark DiCamillo agreed, noting that when his outfit tested the two wordings in September, support for Prop. 8 was three points lower on Brown's version than the original.

As the state's top law enforcer, Brown has taken no official position on Prop. 8.

But it's interesting to note that he joined fellow Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi at a Hollywood fundraiser for the No on 8 campaign last week.

Royal family: No longer content with merely being mayor, Newsom is working with the Alioto clan to engineer a takeover of San Francisco - and a "right-wing" one at that.

At least, that's how Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin sees it.

"We are in the midst of what in San Francisco Chronicle terms would be a moderate takeover of San Francisco. Bull-! It is a conservative takeover of San Francisco," Peskin said at a recent meeting of the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club - in remarks captured by Luke Thomas for all to see on FogCityJournal.com.

"And I will say it by name," Peskin went on. "Does anyone know that (Supervisor) Michela Alioto-Pier is a cousin of Gavin Newsom?"

(Actually, her cousin is married to his sister.)

"They are going to extend that empire by electing her brother (Joe Alioto Jr., running for supervisor from District 3) so that the chief executive and two members of the (board) will be from the same family," Peskin said.

"They are moderates? My ass! They are right-wing reactionaries," Peskin said of the green-obsessed, pro-same-sex-marriage mayor and his allies.

Worse yet, Peskin said, the "family" members are all friends of Republicans like Gap founder Don Fisher, with whom the board president has tangled in the past.

"Follow the money. Follow the money. Follow the money," Peskin intoned.

Overcome by the enormity of the threat, Peskin waxed nostalgic.

"In the old days, we had Willie Brown," he said. "Now we have a slicker, kinder, gentler, less effective but just as evil son of a bitch known as Gavin Newsom."

Prompting this retort from mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard: "Did Peskin call the mayor 'an evil son of a bitch' - or was that just the booze talking?"

Peskin's counter: "I'm not stooping to their level - not for a second."

Sign 'em up: If you still need evidence of just how fired up Bay Area voters are over the presidential election, look no further than heavily Democratic Alameda County - where even prisoners on their way out of jail are signing up to cast ballots.

Voter registration in the county is up more than 100,000 this year, to 780,000. In the last month alone, the county added at least 45,000 new voters to the rolls, said Guy Ashley, spokesman for the registrar of voters.

On the final day to register, the county accepted applications after the normal close of business all the way until midnight - and collected an astonishing 3,000 forms.

Officials reached far and wide in the days before the deadline, even borrowing an AC Transit bus and painting it red, white and blue to help with the registration at community festivals.

In last weekend's final push, Ashley said, staffers joined members of the prison-rights group All of Us Or None outside Santa Rita Jail, where they signed up families of inmates - and some freshly released prisoners as well.

A Gray old time: Friends and staffers of former Gov. Gray Davis are having a bash in Sacramento next month to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his election.

"It's going to be a very spiffy affair - we're having great success with sponsorships," said party organizer and former Davis campaign manager Garry South.

And indeed, the Gold Sponsors list reads like a Who's Who of former Davis contributors, including lobbyist Darius Anderson, consultant Jason Kenny - even the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

Ought to be some party.