Elections 2008

The campaigns for and against Proposition 8 have raised a combined $30 million, with donations given in support of the proposed ban on gay marriage running considerably ahead of those to the opposition. So far, the main group promoting the constitutional amendment, which would overturn a recent California Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, has raised $17.8 million. The main No-on-8 campaign has raised $12.4 million.

Californians might have a sense of deja vu when they vote in November on Proposition 4, a ballot measure that would require doctors to notify a parent or other adult family member before an abortion is performed on a minor. Similar measures were put before the voters in 2005 and 2006 and lost by slim margins both times.

In the final stretch before the Nov. 4 election, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas and Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks face a formidable challenge in their battle for a seat on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors: how to convince voters -- expected to turn out in record numbers -- to focus on the 2nd District amid the excitement of a historic presidential campaign. Parks and Ridley-Thomas have already waged the most expensive campaign fight in county history.

Backers of an initiative to ban same-sex marriage began airing their first commercial Monday, warning that a loss could lead to gay marriage being "taught in public schools" and that churches could lose their tax-exempt status. Proposition 8's promoters said their initial ad buy was $10 million. They hope to raise $3.6 million more by the Nov. 4 election. Foes are spending roughly similar sums.

A union committee reported gathering $3.1 million in the last two months to help state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas win the 2nd District seat being vacated by county Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke. With the Nov. 4 election only weeks away, the independent expenditure committee has amassed a total of $7.1 million to help Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) defeat Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks. As long as an independent group does not coordinate with the candidate it supports, donors can avoid the $1,000 limit that applies to individuals giving directly to a campaign.

The award for the most cynical, mendacious, Orwellian campaign of the state election season goes to the opponents of Proposition 11, the redistricting reform initiative. Prop. 11 would strip away the Legislature's power to draw its own districts, which means the authority for lawmakers to select their own voters. It's a blatant conflict of interest. The once-a-decade chore would be turned over to a 14-member independent citizens commission.

The food fight is over. Nearly a month ago, opponents of Proposition 8 -- which would amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage -- started a "soft boycott" of Bolthouse Farms, among the largest producers of fresh-cut carrots in the world and the maker of juices and smoothies sold in foodie haunts and upscale markets. Company patriarch William Bolthouse Jr. had donated $100,000 to help get the measure on the Nov.

With hundreds of veterans returning to California from service in Iraq and Afghanistan, voters are being asked to borrow $900 million to provide low-cost mortgages for those who served in the military. Californians have approved similar requests 26 times before, allocating $8.4 billion toward home loans for more than 420,000 veterans of World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq and Afghanistan. The latest measure, Proposition 12 on the Nov.

With less than a week to sign up voters in many states, registration groups have revved up their efforts to target young people where they live: on their cellphones, computers and video games. Rock the Vote, the nation's largest youth registration group, recently launched a feature on Microsoft's Xbox 360 that allows gamers to request voter registration forms from their handsets.

To partisans, they are "Phony Tony" and "Taxin' Jackson." Tony Strickland, 38, might call himself the alternative energy executive, detractors say, but he's still the same right-wing Republican who consistently voted against the environment during his days in the California Assembly. And Hannah-Beth Jackson? The 58-year-old Democrat is so liberal that she's never seen a tax she didn't like, according to Strickland's supporters. Voters couldn't have a clearer choice, both sides say.