SEN. LOCKYER'S PITCH

A change of emphasis would come to the California attorney general's office
if Democrat Bill Lockyer is elected. The former state Senate president
pro-tem, who still serves in the Senate, believes current Attorney General
Dan Lungren-a Republican now running for governor- has taken the wrong
track in some areas.

In an interview yesterday with the Register editorial board, Sen. Lockyer
indicated how he's likely to be distinctively different. He would shift the
department's emphasis more toward consumer rights and civil rights cases
and away from narcotics enforcement, a cornerstone of Mr. Lungren's
administration. And Sen. Lockyer would push to improve the technology and
management structure of a department that has more than 4,000 employees,
including 1,000 lawyers.

Sen. Lockyer criticized existing enforcement of child-support statutes,
noting there is a backlog of one million names of Californians that local
district attorneys want to find for collection purposes. Sen. Lockyer
conceded that much of the problem was a state computer system that didn't
work. As a politician representing Silicon Valley, he said, "You start by
enlisting some of the best brains in the planet who work in California" in
the computer industry.

In some other areas Sen. Lockyer had ideas that we think would move the
department beyond the rigidities of the Lungren administration. He fully
backs Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative passed by voters in
1996, and voted for it.

He believes physicians ought to be able to prescribe whatever pain-relief
medications are necessary to those in severe pain. He remembered the
suffering of his mother, who died of leukemia at 50, and of his sister, who
died from the same disease. "If you can give them morphine [which it is
legal to prescribe], you can give them marijuana," he said, speaking of
patients in general. He admitted the initiative "wasn't written well" and
would advocate statutes that better define, for instance, who is a
caretaker, and would allow the regulated distribution of marijuana to sick
people who need it, but with safeguards to prevent broader use.

He opposes new taxes on and censorship of the Internet and would favor
allowing local public schools and libraries to establish sensible use
policies, rather than the state.

He has been a major supporter of the 1993 law that limited the seizures of
innocent people's property under asset forfeiture laws, requiring a
conviction in court before the property is taken. (The previous state law,
and current federal law, allow seizures without a trial.)

He also sensibly favors shifting the emphasis of drug abuse offenders from
incarceration to treatment. In 15 years, prison costs have zoomed to $4
billion a year from $400 million. More than 150,000 prisoners are behind
bars in California, a majority sufferering alcohol or drug problems. Drug
treatment programs would help relieve overcrowding, he believes, in part
because they reduce recidivism.

In a couple of ways, Sen. Lockyer would act like Mr. Lungren. He supports
the actions of 40 state attorneys general, including Mr. Lungren, against
the tobacco companies. He believes a cigarette tax might be necessary to
"pay the social costs" of smoking and that government, through taxes, can
significantly change behavior. And, he is predisposed to viewing Microsoft
Corp. as a monopoly in terms of its operating system. All this could well
mean a hard eye on big business and a tilt toward intrusion, though he
professed a respect for the free market.

On the subject of taxes, he pointed out that he sponsored last year's $1
billion state income tax cut and was the sole Senate Democrat who opposed
the "car tax " that was imposed in 1991, and which now costs an average of
$184 a year for each car. "It's regressive, high," he said, but hasn't
endorsed Assemblyman Tom McClintock's new proposal to repeal the tax. "I
don't want to cut local services" which the tax pays for, Sen. Lockyer
said. And the state budget surplus expected this year could be only part of
a "temporary upswing in the economy" that soon could fade.

It seems to us that on these tax issues Sen. Lockyer wants it both ways. If
the car tax was wrong in 1991 then it's wrong now and ought to be repealed.
And if cigarette taxes would unfairly hit the poor and precipitate black
market activity, as happened in Canada, Then the taxes ought not be
imposed.

Government is about making hard public-policy choices. Sen. Lockyer aligns
with our views in some areas - First Amendment issues, the Internet, asset
forfeiture and medical marijuana - but on tax issues he almost reflexively
wants to keep revenues on the government ledger, instead of returning them
to the producers, the taxpayers.

But one thing seems certain: the attorney general's office under Sen.
Lockyer, if elected, would not be a continuation of the Lungren days, in
many significant ways.

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)