From Stateline.org:

California’s next attorney general will have a full plate. He or she will have to deal with a federal court challenge on prison overcrowding, a continuing battle over gay marriage, how to proceed if a marijuana-legalization ballot measure passes, and whether to follow other states in cracking down on illegal immigration and implementing, or challenging, the newly passed health care bill. And all of this is in addition to the ordinary workload of judicial appeals, general litigation, and environmental and consumer protection cases.

Despite the breadth of this portfolio, California voters have historically focused on one issue above all others when voting for attorney general — namely, how tough the candidate is on crime, even though it’s local DAs, rather than the AG, who are actually responsible for criminal prosecutions.

And despite California’s reputation as a liberal state, its voters, all other things equal, like their AGs to be as hard-line on crime as possible, particularly in how they feel about the death penalty. In a July 2010 Field Poll, 70 percent of Californians said they support the legality of the death penalty. So any candidate seen as soft on the issue starts in a hole.

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