I have been asked to comment on the up-coming CA gubernatorial election: Of the Republican candidate, an immensely wealthy woman named Whitman, I know nothing except that she is alleged to be anti-gun by some people who claim to know and that the allegation is not surprising to anyone.

SPECIFICS: Whitman recently gave an interview to the SF Chronicle in which it reported her as believing "tough gun laws like assault weapon bans and handgun control [i.e., banning them] are appropriate for California." Under her stewarship of E-Bay it adopted a policy of refusing to advertise gun or ammo sales.

Whitman has no interest in meeting w/ gun groups to solicit their support; Whitman has supported Barbara Boxer; Whitman supports "environmental" lawsuits that are anti-hunting but makes no attempt to gain the aid of gun groups on environmental issues.

In contrast, I do know Jerry Brown. We went to law school together though we were not big buddies. And when I contacted him about supporting the pro-2d Am position in the McDonald case, he filed an influential pro-2d Am brief w/ the S Ct. I know that he personally made the decision to do this, overruling his staff; and he wrote the brief himself. (He is an able lawyer.) When he was assailed by anti-gun forces, his response was that the 2d am is a "civil rights issue."

This is not to say that Brown is "pro-gun."He just thinks – as does everyone rational and informed on the issue – that gun control does not help reduce crime; indeed, that it has nothing to do w/ crime.

Based on the foregoing, I unreservedly recommend Jerry Brown for CA governor.