UKIAH, Calif. — Jim Gray, rigid as a judge's gavel, stood at the front of a high-ceilinged tavern here and ran through a list of political positions he hoped would appeal to Mendocino County's famously idiosyncratic voters. Pot should be legal. Genetically modified foods should be labeled. The Patriot Act should be gutted.
"We are galloping, racing toward a police state," said Gray, his voice curt and direct. "This Patriot Act is the most recent, but our civil liberties are in jeopardy."
These are not political views normally associated with a 59-year-old Orange County Superior Court judge, a self-described "conservative dude" who left the Republican Party less than two years ago over its stances backing the war on drugs and the Patriot Act, and joined the more doctrinaire Libertarians. But in a life marked by anomalies -- Gray once led an anti-Vietnam War protest while enrolled in USC's Navy ROTC program -- the judge is engaged in yet another incongruous act: a yearlong leave of absence from the bench to challenge two-term Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer for the U.S. Senate.
With a three-person staff, pocket change in his war chest and a campaign based mainly on legalizing marijuana, Gray's path to the Senate is steeper than the traditional uphill run. It's more like standing at the base of El Capitan, looking skyward and wondering just how high he can scramble before gravity drags him back to earth.
But Gray sees his campaign as an act of personal responsibility. He might be a pragmatist on an impractical mission, but he believes current government policies are wrong and should be changed. And he believes you change things by example.
"How can I expect anybody else to come forward unless I do more than my share?" Gray told the crowd.
So Gray has been making small forays like this one, going out for a few days to talk to supporters, troll for fresh votes and try to get himself interviewed by local media. Then he returns to Costa Mesa to map strategy from his office near John Wayne Airport, a rented first-floor space wedged between two fast-food joints and downstairs from a tanning parlor.
Like most minor-party candidates, Gray doesn't really expect to win in November. With Boxer anchoring the Democratic left, challenger Bill Jones on the Republican right and no one from the Green Party on the ballot, Gray hopes to galvanize enough support from the political margins and the independent center to send a message to the mainstream.
