DA TRIES TO SURVIVE RECALL BID

In 150 years of Marin County history, district attorneys have resigned,
lost re-election campaigns and died in office. One even quit over
allegations he poisoned his wife.

But no DA has ever suffered the disgrace of being recalled. On
Tuesday, voters will decide whether Paula Kamena will be the first.

Kamena, the county's 23rd district attorney, is facing a special recall
election driven by a consortium of medical-marijuana activists,
family-court reformers and other critics.

Her opponent is Thomas Van Zandt, a patent attorney who lives in Mill
Valley. If a simple majority votes to recall Kamena, Van Zandt is almost
certain to become the next DA. He is the only other choice on the ballot,
although voters can select a write-in candidate.

While Kamena enjoys the solid backing of the law enforcement and political
establishments, the election could hinge on how many people bother to vote
in the special election. The only issues on the ballot are the DA recall
and, for Novato voters, the Bahia referendum.

Marin County Clerk Michael Smith predicts a turnout of 30 to 35 percent in
this election, roughly 50,000 voters or fewer. Assuming 50,000 voters do
show up at the polls, Kamena's foes would need a little more than 25,000
votes to oust her.

They have already collected nearly 20,000 signatures for the recall petition.

However, the county elections office disqualified about 6,000 signatures
over questions about current addresses and voter registrations. Also, state
authorities are investigating whether some people who signed the recall
petition were misled about its true purpose. The investigation could take
months to complete, but the election will go on as scheduled.

The differences between the two rivals are stark. Kamena, 55, of San
Rafael, is a career prosecutor and probation officer who started working
for the county in 1969. Van Zandt, 38, passed the bar in 1998 and
specializes in patent law, labor relations and other civil litigation. He
works in Santa Clara County.

Kamena and her supporters say Van Zandt is completely unqualified to
prosecute criminal cases and administer an office of 130 employees. But Van
Zandt says the real issue is restoring integrity to the office and purging
it of political influence.

"Integrity is the threshold qualification for this job, and without it any
resume is worthless," Van Zandt declares on the election ballot.

"This ill-conceived recall is the result of misleading actions by
disgruntled litigants who had their day in court and lost; by those who
incorrectly believe that the District Attorney plays a role in child
custody cases; and by those who want the District Attorney to bend to
political pressure rather than follow the law," Kamena writes in her ballot
statement.

Both are referring to the child-custody case of Carol Mardeusz, Van Zandt's
sister. Mardeusz lost custody of her daughter in a bitter family-law
dispute and then made off with the child against a court order. Kamena's
office then secured a grand jury indictment against Mardeusz for child
abduction.

The Mardeusz case was the spark that ignited the recall movement. The
recall was originally directed at several family-law judges, but Kamena's
name was added to the mix because of the indictment. When the revolt
against the judges foundered, a group of medical-marijuana activists -
accusing the DA's office of persecuting sick marijuana users - took up the
cause against Kamena and got enough signatures for a recall.

The ballot makes no mention of medical marijuana, only the Mardeusz case.
Some residents complained that the petitioners told them they were signing
in support of medical marijuana, not a DA recall.

Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and close at 8 p.m. For more information, call
the Registrar of Voters at 499-6456, or visit http://www.marin.org.

The deadline to register was May 7.