Political Endorsements

California First Lady Maria Shriver delivered a surprise endorsement of Barack Obama on Sunday, overcoming qualms about going public because, she said, the Illinois senator was the presidential candidate able to unify the country across racial, ethnic and other lines of division. "He's not about himself," she told a cheering crowd at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. "He's about the power of us and what we can do if we come together. . . .

A burst of presidential endorsements has been made by notable members of the extended, politically powerful Kennedy family over the last two weeks. Here's how they stack up: For Barack Obama Caroline Kennedy, daughter of late President John F. Kennedy Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), brother of JFK and late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), son of Sen.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, who nearly two years ago announced she would retire from one of the region's most powerful elected positions, endorsed Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks on Thursday in the hotly contested race to succeed her. The veteran politician's endorsement of Parks, whom she called "dedicated and thorough," comes as the former Los Angeles police chief competes with state Sen.

For the second time in six months, Buena Park pastor Wiley S. Drake has called on his followers to pray for the demise of leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Last week, Drake learned that the IRS had launched an investigation into his endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential bid, an inquiry that Americans United had urged. The endorsement was written on church letterhead and announced during a church-affiliated Internet radio show.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League and the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs were among five law enforcement unions Tuesday that endorsed state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) to replace retiring county Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke. The move places the public safety unions alongside much of the region's other organized labor groups in backing Ridley-Thomas, who is running against L.A. City Councilman Bernard C. Parks -- a former Los Angeles Police Department chief. Burke announced last week that she was supporting Parks for the June 3 primary election.

Civil rights leader John Lewis dropped his support for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid Wednesday in favor of Barack Obama. Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Atlanta, is the most prominent black leader to defect from Clinton's campaign in the face of near-unanimous black support for Obama in recent voting. He also is a superdelegate who gets a vote at this summer's national convention in Denver.

He was the Joker in "Batman," but actor Jack Nicholson said he wasn't fooling around when he said in "A Few Good Men" that there was nothing sexier than saluting a woman. Nicholson, who is backing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, took his endorsement to the Internet on Saturday with a humorous collection of clips that put his support into the mouths of his most famous film characters. "And now, folks, it's time for who do you trust. Hubba, hubba, hubba.

When it came time to make his endorsement in the hot race to succeed Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, Sheriff Lee Baca didn't pick just one candidate to fill the 2nd District seat. He picked two. His selection of both state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks -- widely considered the two leading contenders -- was not a matter of hedging his bet in the June 3 race, a Baca spokesman said.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation's only Latino governor, is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president, calling him a "once-in-a-lifetime leader" who can unite the nation and restore America's international leadership. Richardson, who dropped out of the Democratic race in January, is to appear with Obama today at a campaign event in Portland, Ore., the Associated Press has learned.

Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Moral Majority, made a splash last November when he endorsed Mitt Romney for president. Now he's part of an organized campaign urging the man who bested Romney in the Republican primaries and caucuses, John McCain, to not make the former Massachusetts governor his running mate. There was no love lost -- at all -- between the McCain and Romney forces in the final stages of the GOP contest.