CalWatchdog Morning Read – November 7

• Prop. 66 caps death penalty appeals at five years. What happens then?
• 10 things to know about the measure to legalize pot
• Is CAGOP losing the Vietnamese-American voting bloc? 
• Brown fights Prop. 53 hard, supporter cries foul
• What happens to AG vacancy if Harris elected to Senate?

Good morning. Happy Election Day Eve. Hope you had a great weekend. Your Morning Read author had his first persimmon this weekend — yet another reason to like California. 

The election is tomorrow, and one of the closest choices voters will have to make is what to do about the death penalty. There are two competing measures: one speeds up the process while the other would stop it entirely. 

If approved, Prop. 62 would repeal the death penalty and commute the condemned sentences to life without parole. And slightly further down the ballot, Prop. 66 would speed up the process by expanding the number of courts and attorneys able to hear and try death penalty appeals to meet a five-year cap on the appeals process that currently takes decades. (If both measures pass, the highest vote-getter would become law.)

But failure to meet the five-year time frame would not commute the sentence or throw out the appeal, according to the proposed language. So what happens at the five-year mark?

CalWatchdog answers that question. 

In other news:

• The Los Angeles Times points out 10 things voters need to know about Prop. 64, which would legalize recreational pot.

• More bad news for Republicans: “What once was one of the few key minority groups the California GOP could bank on at the polls increasingly trending Democrat and independent. Today young Vietnamese voters are now more likely to register Democrat than your average young Californian.” The Los Angeles Daily News/Calmatters has more. 

• Gov. Jerry Brown is doing his best to down Prop. 53, as one of the measure’s biggest benefactors cries foul, reports Politico. 

• “For Californians who have had enough political intrigue this year, there might not be much of a respite even after Nov. 8 if Kamala Harris wins the race for the U.S. Senate, as most polling suggests. Harris’ current post as California attorney general would become vacant, leaving open one of the state’s most powerful and influential positions for Gov. Jerry Brown to fill through the end of her term in 2018.” The Los Angeles Times has more. 

Legislature:

• Gone till December. 

Gov. Brown: 

• No public events announced. 

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