​Had D.A. Steve Cooley been elected attorney general, the odds-on favorite to replace him would have been his third-ranking administrator, Jacquelyn P. Lacey.

Lacey, 53, was considered most likely to get Cooley's support for the appointment. She's also a Democrat and an African-American, which would have helped with the Board of Supervisors, which is responsible for filling a D.A. vacancy and is majority Democrat.

But she's not a politician, and has no public profile to speak of. (She's so under the radar, in fact, that we couldn't find a picture of her.) So when Cooley lost to Kamala Harris, some folks within the office questioned whether she would want to launch a campaign for the 2012 election.
More >>

Photo by Kevin Scanlon

Steve Cooley

​At a press conference in his office this afternoon, Steve Cooley all but ruled out running for a fourth term as district attorney.

But Cooley, fresh off a narrow defeat to Kamala Harris in the race for attorney general, plans to have a big role in choosing his successor.

Cooley said he would not support "some politician-type who's not a professional prosecutor." Nor would he back some "unqualified, disreputable people who happen to be lawyers." He didn't name names, but you can fill in Rocky Delgadillo in the former category and Steve Ipsen in the latter.
More >>

Kamala Harris

​Kamala Harris declared victory this morning in the razor-close race for attorney general. With almost all the ballots counted, Harris is leading L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley by 73,102 votes.

Proving right off the bat that she will be a different kind of A.G., Harris announced a star-studded "transition team," including former L.A.P.D. Chief Bill Bratton, criminal justice reformer Connie Rice, and former Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and George Shultz. Those names suggest Harris has ambitions that go well beyond being California's "top cop."

Harris also displayed some of her trademark caution when she was asked how she would handle the appeal in Schwarzenegger v. Plata, the prison overcrowding case being argued today before the U.S. Supreme Court.
More >>

Steve Cooley laments partisanship

​L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley lamented the rise of partisanship in his concession message today, echoing a complaint that his consultants have been making since Election Day.

In their view, Cooley had a scarlet R next to his name, and it led to his defeat.

It bears repeating that Cooley lost by less than a percent, and could easily have won had his campaign done things differently. But it's worth pushing back against this I'm-a-victim-of-my-own-political-affiliation argument before it takes hold.
More >>

Photo by Kevin Scanlon

Steve Cooley: What went wrong

​Note: We first ran this port-mortem back on Nov. 3. Now that Cooley's campaign is officially dead, it seems appropriate to recycle it, with a reaction below from Cooley consultant Kevin Spillane.

Whatever the outcome of the attorney general's race, it's clear that Steve Cooley led most of the way and then blew it in the final days.

That's because Cooley ran a tentative and complacent campaign. If he loses, and trends suggest he will, it will be thanks to several tactical mistakes, an indifference to stumping for votes, and a gaffe on pensions.

Cooley can also blame Meg Whitman, whose 12-point loss probably sealed his defeat. But the fact remains that he could have won with a more aggressive campaign. Herewith, a post-mortem analysis.
More >>

Steve Cooley

​Steve Cooley has conceded the attorney general's race to Kamala Harris. In a conference call, Cooley's campaign consultant, Kevin Spillane, announced that Cooley had called Harris to congratulate her.

We called the race for Harris yesterday, after noting that Cooley would need to win the remaining ballots by a margin of 66-26.

In a statement, Harris said she would hold off on declaring victory until next Tuesday.
More >>

Fox 11 News

Steve Cooley went with his gut and declared victory on Election Night. His gut let him down.

​We've been saying for a while that the math didn't look good for Steve Cooley. But now we can go ahead and make it official.

Steve Cooley has lost. Kamala Harris will be the next attorney general of California.

Out of an abundance of laziness caution, we've held off until now. But we're getting tired of waiting for the AP to call this thing, and Eric Garcetti has already beaten us to the punch anyway.

Update, Wednesday morning: Cooley concedes.
More >>

Rock & Roll Library

Who could say no to a children's hospital?

​Californians want to have their cake, eat it too, but sure as hell not pay for it after the 2010 state election, a new USC poll shows.

"Twenty-million-dollar deficit BAD, health care and education GOOD!," said three of every four voters in a random pool of about 1,700.

The only cries for cuts were directed at stinky, unpopular areas of government spending like prisons and transportation. Taxes, of any kind, were also largely hated on. Boo taxes!

Splurging on schools and health programs for the children/needy, however --

More >>

Image de Denver

Did I forget to tell them how much I hate Arizona?

​Not shockingly, the Republican candidates of California are in a state of confusion after the ransacking they received on Election Day 2010.

They can't understand why, when Latinos and Asian-Americans report being politically liberal at a lesser rate than whites -- and on many policies, vote more conservative -- the minority groups were so turned off by GOP candidates this year. [The entire USC poll can be found here.]

Huh. Aside from the obvious maltreated housekeeper --

More >>

​Now that Lisa Murkowski has been declared the winner in Alaska, the highest-profile undecided race in the country may be the one for California attorney general.

With that, Politico decides to dip in:

If Cooley wins, said Republican strategist Adam Mendelsohn, "he'll be No. 1 on the California Republican bench."

More >>

Photo by Ted Soqui

Nicky Diaz appears at a news conference last month with Gloria Allred

​At a labor hearing today in San Jose, Nicky Diaz was awarded $5,500 in back pay from her former employer, Meg Whitman.

Thus ends the only storyline that most people will remember from the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, the upstairs/downstairs fable of the billionaire brought low by her illegal immigrant maid.

Whitman probably won't miss the money. Today it was reported that she dropped another $2.6 million into her campaign on election day -- long after it was clear to most people that she was throwing good money after bad.
More >>

An anti-Cooley poster

​They're still counting ballots down in Norwalk, but Americans for Safe Access is ready to declare a winner in the attorney general's race: Kamala Harris.

ASA supports medical marijuana, and attacked Steve Cooley during the campaign for trying to shut down dispensaries. Now, the group would like its due:

"This remarkable result for Kamala Harris shows the political strength of patient advocates," said ASA California Director Don Duncan. "Our efforts to educate the public about Steve Cooley's record made the difference, particularly on his home turf of LA, where he lost by 14 points."More >>

Steve Cooley

​Steve Cooley's campaign is engaged in an escalating war of words with elections officials in L.A., where 150,000 provisional ballots could tip the balance in the razor-close race for attorney general.

Cooley's attorney has fired off three letters to the L.A. County Registar-Recorder in the last three days, alleging that election workers are being too lax in allowing provisional ballots to be counted.
More >>

Getting testy in Norwalk

​Updated below with response from the Cooley campaign at 7:23 p.m.

Kamala Harris' chief strategist is accusing Steve Cooley's campaign of intimidating election workers in Norwalk in an effort to disqualify provisional ballots.

Harris holds a narrow 14,000 vote lead in the race for attorney general. About 150,000 ballots remain to be counted in Los Angeles County, and they are likely to tilt in Harris' favor.
More >>

​It was exactly a week ago that D.A. Steve Cooley took the lead from Kamala Harris in the still too-close-to-call race for attorney general.

Tonight, she has taken it back, and now leads her Republican rival by a mere 5,000 votes, or about six one-hundredths of a percent. Harris was down by 15,000 votes earlier in the day, but jumped in front thanks to updates from Democratic strongholds like L.A. County, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Contra Costa.
More >>

Photo by Ted Soqui

Meg Whitman

​Republican strategist Mike Murphy went on "Meet the Press" this morning to give his take on why Meg Whitman lost. His view is that Whitman was offering "tough medicine," and the voters weren't interested.

"We just had some tough answers that people didn't want," Murphy said.

Huh? Is this the same Whitman campaign that promised to balance the budget without raising taxes and without cutting education?
More >>

Photo of Harris by Ted Soqui

Squeaker: Harris is beating Cooley by 12,000 votes

​It will be weeks before the winner is known in the super-close race for attorney general. But thanks to figures provided by the Secretary of State's office, we can make a back-of-the-envelope guess as to how the remaining 2.3 million uncounted ballots will affect the outcome.

The results don't look good for Steve Cooley, who currently trails Kamala Harris by 12,000 votes. (Update at 11 p.m.: Cooley leads by 16,000 votes. See below.)
More >>

Fox 11 News

Steve Cooley declared victory on Tuesday night

​L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley has lawyered up in preparation for a drawn-out fight with Kamala Harris in the still too-close-to-call race for attorney general.

In a memo to supporters on Thursday night, Cooley's consultant Kevin Spillane vowed to fight any "manipulations of the ballot counting process by the Harris campaign."

Cooley also claimed a potential advantage in the ongoing tabulation, arguing there are more uncounted ballots in counties that favored Cooley than in counties that went for Harris.
More >>

PHOTO BY NICHOLE O'CONNOR

No Meg, he's not your real friend

​Another case for Golden State sovereignty:

Facebook 'Likes' may have determined the races in most U.S. states, but Californians should be proud to know that Zuckerberg's popularity meter made no indication of our preference for governor or ganja this November.

Gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman had twice the 'Likes' as winner Jerry Brown, while 'Yes' on Prop. 19 had 25,000 more 'Likes' than the 'No' camp's weak 2,000. Both make sense, if you think about it: Who uses Facebook to publicize their love for a washed-up 72-year-old with solid fiscal policies or their square-ass stance on the psychedelic revolution?

More >>

Photo of Whitman by Ted Soqui

Voters preferred the one on the left

​Everybody knows that Meg Whitman spent $160 million to lose to Jerry Brown. Less noticed is the fact that she also lost to legalized marijuana.

Whitman got 3.1 million votes. Prop. 19 got 3.4 million votes. Conclusive proof: Californians prefer weed to Meg Whitman.
More >>