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Hello, I’m Mike Schmier, Democratic candidate for California Attorney General.
Our California state constitution specifies that the first duty of the Attorney General
is “to see that the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced.” I am
committed to that purpose.
If elected Attorney General, I will do the following:
1) I will work to remove money and special interests from government, to ensure public
offices are free from outside control, to clean up the waste in government and corruption
in financial markets, to create jobs, security, a strong financial system and consumer protection
- by increasing investigations and prosecutions against white collar fraud.
2) I will work to reduce the high cost of our sentencing and prison system. Rehabilitation
and job training must be improved so that released prisoners do not return to prison.
Minor drug offenders should not be in prison; the death penalty should be eliminated. Spending
$55,000 per prisoner annually to imprison drug addicts and “three strikes” offenders
makes no sense. The annual cost of death penalty cases in California is reported to be more
than 10 times greater than life sentences without parole; that makes no sense.
3) I support Proposition 15, and will work for legislation and constitutional amendments
to expand its reach. Additionally, I support the ballot initiative to legalize cannabis,
the second amendment and equal marriage rights.
4) I will work to give every child an equal opportunity. We must re-engineer the school
system, including the property tax basis of its financial support. Uniform enforcement
of law requires that similarly situated families pay equally for the same services.
5) I will work to make health care for all a reality – uprooting waste and fraud in
the implementation of the new federal health care program, and supporting “single payer”
and public option state systems.
6) I will work to repair problems in our court system. How would you feel if you were charged
with a crime, perhaps a major capital crime, perhaps a $500 ticket from a red light camera,
and you were told that - even though appellate courts have decided that what you may have
done is not a crime - you are forbidden to use, or even mention the decision necessary
to exonerate yourself? Wouldn’t you wonder – how can this be? What happened to “equal
justice?”
The problem is that more than 90% of the time appellate courts order their opinions marked
“Not to be Published”, and a California Supreme Court Rule prohibits us from using,
or even mentioning these “unpublished” opinions in our state courts. This practice
continues in California even though United States Supreme Court justices have eliminated
similar rules in federal courts. California Supreme Court justices refused to follow the
new federal policy, and instead lobbied the Legislature against bills that would have
corrected this problem. Moreover, California justices also erase or “de-publish” lower
court decisions they don't like. Thus, different results flow from similar legal situations.
The promise of equality before the law is destroyed.
Doesn’t this situation warrant our action?
Two California Supreme Court justices are now running for re-election to 12 year terms.
We need to ask them why we are not allowed to use all precedent opinions and rulings
to defend ourselves.
There can be no real reform of our courts, criminal justice system, legal processes,
and financial markets that our society so desperately needs until this issue is addressed
by the voters.
I will work to see that all laws are uniformly and adequately enforced.