Elections 2004

The phone rang at midnight. Jeff Randle, one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political consultants, was working in a hotel room near LAX on the night of Oct. 21 as he grabbed his cellphone. Who, Randle wondered, could be calling him at such an hour? Pete Wilson was on the line. The former California governor had just clinched an agreement that, only 12 days before the election, would mean the collapse of Proposition 66, a measure to limit the state's three-strikes law. Henry T.

Guy Mato, the former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy challenging county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke in the March 2 election, was involved in a major police brutality case against sheriff's deputies in Lynwood in the early 1990s. In 1995, a federal jury ordered Mato to pay $40,826 to Darren Thomas, an African American man from South Los Angeles.

Los Angeles County may continue to use its temporary InkaVote balloting system for several more elections, despite complaints from some voters that the system is difficult to use and evidence that it's less accurate than touch-screen machines. The InkaVote system was purchased to help the county make the transition from punch-card ballots -- banned after the 2000 presidential election -- to touch-screen machines.

His uncles have been a U.S. president and senators, his father ran for vice president, and his movie star brother-in-law was elected governor of California. Now the political wasp has stung Bobby Shriver. At 50, the nephew of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and the late John and Robert F. Kennedy and the brother of Maria Shriver, wife of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is making his first bid for political office -- for the Santa Monica City Council.

He's watched seven presidential races roll by, and never voted in one. Reagan, Carter, Clinton, both Bushes -- they all won the White House without Warren Boyd's help. But this year, Boyd won't let a vestige of his past -- a prison term -- stand in the way. This year, Boyd, 49, will have a say. "I always figured my felony stayed with me, that I wasn't allowed to vote," said Boyd, a Vietnam veteran living at the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. "Now I know the truth.

Major building improvements for schools and teachers' job security will be in voters' hands in two Ventura County districts next month. Residents of the Simi Valley Unified School District will vote March 2 on a $145-million bond issue that would finance improvements at all 28 schools in the district. Property owners would pay $42 per $100,000 of assessed valuation for the 25-year life of the loan.

Months after being forced from office by term limits, former Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden announced Monday that he will run for a state Assembly seat in the March election. Holden, 74, of Baldwin Hills, is seeking a return trip to Sacramento. He served four years in the state Senate before his 16-year stint on the City Council. "I will bring to Sacramento some knowledge about how to get the job done and how to protect the interests of the people," said Holden, a Democrat.

George Zoritch, an international ballet star who had a second career as a well-respected teacher, died Nov. 1 at Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson. He was 92. His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the law firm representing his estate. The cause was not given. Zoritch had retired in 1987 from teaching dance at the University of Arizona. He also taught at his studio in West Hollywood and had several stage and film credits. Zoritch was best known for his work with the Ballet Russe companies starting in the 1930s.

The judge presiding over a GOP challenge to Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire's close election said he is not going to be rushed. The state Republican Party had suggested an April 4 trial date. But Superior Court Judge John E. Bridges said in Wenatchee that he would not set a date until both sides had completed discovery, the legal term for the exchange of information. Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi and the GOP contend that Gregoire's victory by just 129 votes out of 2.

Two of Mayor James K. Hahn's challengers stepped up their attacks on his record and ethical standards Tuesday as one proposed toughening campaign money laws and the other unveiled a plan to hire new police officers. Taking shots at Hahn from the steps of City Hall were Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who released his ethics reform proposal, and Sherman Oaks lawyer Bob Hertzberg, who put out his police hiring plan hours later.