He also stood by his article. "My op-ed was accurate in saying California does not comply with the federal standards for providing counsel to those on death row in their post-conviction proceedings, and Arizona is the only state deemed in federal district court to have met the federal standards."
Michael Schroeder, one of Orange County's most powerful GOP political players, said a group of 20 prominent Republicans organized against Chemerinsky in recent weeks, believing him to be a "longtime partisan gunslinger" and too "polarizing" for the job.
Another member of the group, who asked not to be identified, said Drake's cellphone number was distributed so the protesters could call the chancellor.
Antonovich said he too worked to derail the appointment by sending an e-mail to a small group of supporters and urging them to contact the university.
UC President Robert C. Dynes issued a statement Friday to The Times praising Drake's integrity and saying that the chancellor has assured him that he was not influenced by political pressure when he rescinded the offer to Chemerinsky.
"Michael Drake is an honorable man and one of the finest academic administrators I know," Dynes said. "He is not hesitant to address controversial issues head-on and has done so in the past."
One UC official noted that Drake's standing with the university had been so high before this incident that some saw him as a potential candidate to take over for Dynes, who has announced he will step down by June.
But now Drake is fighting for survival, which depends in large part on whether he can regain the confidence of the UCI faculty.
Part of Drake's problem is that he appears to have given conflicting reasons for his decision, at one point apparently attributing it to expected opposition by the UC Board of Regents when it was to meet next week.
Members of the board, however, said they were unaware of any opposition to Chemerinsky's hiring.
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garrett.therolf@latimes.com
maura.dolan@latimes.com
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Times Staff Writers Christian Berthelsen, Jennifer Delson, Rebecca Trounson and Richard C. Paddock contributed to this article.
