loud cheer went up at the Falkirk Cultural Center on Tuesday night one minute after the polls closed, when initial results showed that a bid to recall Marin County District Attorney Paula Kamena was going up in a large cloud of pot smoke.
Kamena, whose supporters had gathered at the center, would go on to win handily with nearly 86 percent of the vote. And in doing so, she routed not only recall proponents, but also likely dashed the hopes of medical marijuana activists who had talked openly about mounting recall campaigns against DAs statewide.
Unofficial results Wednesday showed that 40,777 voters opposed the recall of Kamena, who had been targeted for supposedly harsh medical marijuana policies and for refusing to investigate alleged family court corruption. Only 6,735 voters said yes to recall, accounting for slightly more than 14 percent of the vote.
Absentee votes and provisional ballots remain to be counted, but there is no way they could alter the outcome.
Kamena's easy victory bodes well for at least four other California DAs who medical marijuana activists have threatened to recall for allegedly violating Proposition 215, the 1996 law that lets seriously ill people use marijuana if prescribed by a doctor.
"The overwhelming retention of DA Kamena should give pause to those considering targeting other district attorneys for recall over their Proposition 215 enforcement," Lawrence Brown, executive director of the Sacramento-based California District Attorneys Association, said Wednesday. He said he had heard about recall threats involving the DAs of Shasta, Calaveras, Sonoma and Placer counties.
"A recall should be reserved for corrupt or incompetent public officials," Brown added. "It should not be used for single-issue policy decisions."
Tuesday's recall vote was the culmination of an odd movement that began when a handful of Marin residents attempted to oust four superior court judges they accused of mishandling child custody cases. That effort failed, but enough signatures were gathered to put Kamena's job in jeopardy.
Thomas Van Zandt was the only candidate to replace the DA.
Photo: Christine Jegan
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Recall proponents accused Kamena of being complicit in an alleged conspiracy against mothers in family court and they criticized her for prosecuting Carol Mardeusz, a Novato woman who was found guilty last year of attempting to abduct her own daughter. Thomas Van Zandt, the only candidate to replace Kamena if she had been recalled, is Mardeusz's brother.
The Kamena recall didn't gain momentum, however, until medical marijuana activists joined in. Their backers, who claimed that Kamena unjustly prosecutes medical marijuana users, gathered enough signatures to force the recall.
On Wednesday, a relieved Kamena called the election outcome a victory for the people of Marin County who "said they won't be misled or deceived and that this type of misuse of the recall process just won't be tolerated."
She also said that the voters sent a message to the rest of the state "that no one should tolerate the DA's office being the puppet of politics and that a DA should not bend to political pressure or personal agendas."
On Tuesday night, recall proponents at the campaign party at the Embassy Suites vowed to continue efforts to unseat DAs around the state. And Van Zandt, who distanced himself a bit from pot advocates in the last week, said that the election succeeded in getting out the message that there is political corruption in Marin County.
"We've got some serious problems up here," he said.
Lynnette Shaw, head of the Fairfax-based Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, agreed and said the recall vote started a process that questions the government system.
"We've alerted the public to the fact that there's a lot of weird shit going on that shouldn't go on," she said.
That message might not be going far, though. On Tuesday night, Kamena's backers expressed dismay at the whole recall.
Annette Gibbs, a computer engineer from Mill Valley, said she was appalled by "the momentum of the Deadheads" and her friend, Tiffany O'Hara, a designer, said she has been a Kamena fan since the DA helped her oust a couple of "dope head" renters.
"She came through for me," O'Hara said. "She's honest, and she's tough."
James Proctor, a San Rafael solo practitioner, and his psychologist wife, Betsy, said they viewed the recall as a waste of taxpayers' money. Some estimates placed the cost of the recall election at $500,000.
"There probably was some basis for doing something about the family law court," Proctor said, "but then to spill over to the district attorney seemed like harassment. I think, given the expense, recall is something that should be used very sparingly."
Brown, of the DAs association, said Wednesday that if medical marijuana advocates want to do something truly constructive, they should join DAs in supporting Senate Bill 187. That legislation, sponsored by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, clarifies Prop 215 and requires the state Department of Health Services to implement a system to provide marijuana to chronically ill patients.
"We're treating that as a high priority," he said.
