Proposition 66 Sentencing Reform

Steve Cooley is florid-faced and unequivocal as he responds to a question during a public forum at USC last June. Asked about Proposition 66, the initiative to amend California's three-strikes law on the November ballot, the Los Angeles County district attorney essentially has two things to say: He hates it, and he will work for its defeat. Then he lays out his case opposing the ponderously titled "Limitations on Three Strikes Law. Sex Crimes. Punishment.

Half a dozen tombstone-shaped placards stood on easels at the front of a South Los Angeles meeting hall this month, each bearing the photo of a convict incarcerated under the state's 1994 three-strikes law. Filling the row of folding chairs and standing in the aisles were community activists, relatives of convicted felons and a few repeat offenders who had served their time.

In an echo of a political battle he won 10 years ago, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones traveled here Wednesday to defend the three-strikes measure he wrote as a member of the California Assembly -- a law that would be partially rewritten under a November ballot initiative.

Two weeks before election day, a ballot measure to substantially roll back the state's three-strikes sentencing law is leading by almost 3 to 1 among likely voters, while some other high-profile measures remain locked in close contests, according to a new Times poll. Enough California voters remain undecided on several health-related measures to sway the outcome in either direction -- making the final days crucial for opposing sides.

Ten years after voters overwhelmingly approved the state's tough three-strikes sentencing law, Californians seem poised to sharply scale it back and open the door for thousands of inmates to be released early. How many thousands remains in dispute. Supporters of the initiative, citing a judge's ruling and the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst, say about 4,000 inmates would be eligible to have their sentences reviewed.

With less than a week to go, three of the nation's richest men poured more than $2 million into the intensifying fight over a ballot measure to significantly scale back California's tough three-strikes sentencing law. The money -- $1.5 million to fight Proposition 66 from Orange County billionaire Henry T. Nicholas III and $350,000 each from out-of-state billionaires George Soros and John G.

With a rapidity that has taken many political leaders by surprise, Proposition 66, a proposal to significantly scale back California's three-strikes law, has become the focus of the hottest fight on the state's long, complex ballot. Polls by The Times and the Field organization in the last two weeks showed the measure winning with more than 60% of the vote. Now, with money from Henry T. Nicholas III, the founder of Broadcom Corp.

Behind two of the highest-profile measures on Tuesday's ballot stands one of the oldest of human motivations: fathers seeking to help their sons. They are not ordinary fathers. Bob Klein, the man behind Proposition 71, the stem cell ballot initiative, and Jerry Keenan, who brought to a vote Proposition 66, the three-strikes amendment, together have spent more than $5.6 million of their personal fortunes pursuing their chosen causes.

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.