"I endorse Proposition 63 because we must send a powerful and united message to the national Gun Lobby that California will not capitulate to political bullying or compromise the public safety," de León said.
The California Democratic Party, the League of Women Voters of California, the California Branch of the NAACP, the California Labor Federation, and the California Nurses Association are just a handful of the more than 1,200 organizations and community leaders to endorse Proposition 34.
Dozens of school districts, state lawmakers and business groups have endorsed Proposition 51.
In 1994, Governor Wilson, facing a re-election battle, endorsed Proposition 187, which called for withdrawing benefits from illegal immigrants.
A national group of African-American law enforcement officers has endorsed Proposition 19, a ballot measure that would tax and regulate marijuana in California.
Moreover, the governor -- who broke with the Democratic Party and endorsed Proposition 21, the youth crime initiative passed in November that allows 14-year-olds convicted of felonies to be locked up in adult prisons -- has stocked the parole board and other posts with ex-law enforcement officials who are considered hard-liners, very much like his Republican predecessor, Pete Wilson, had done.
But the G.O.P.'s problems in California predate Trump: the Party has been in free fall since the nineteen-nineties, when Pete Wilson, then the governor, a Republican, endorsed Proposition 187, a proto-Trumpian ballot initiative that was designed to prevent non-citizens — Hispanic non-citizens, mainly — from using state-provided public services.
Not that Whitman has endorsed Proposition 23, which the more forthright Fiorina has.
In support of this he endorsed Proposition 71, a California ballot initiative intended to provide state government funding for stem-cell research.
-- Despite political differences with its author, state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) on Thursday endorsed Proposition 63 to expand tough gun control laws.
Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice also endorsed Proposition 47, a ballot initiative that California voters passed in November that prioritizes law enforcement resources for serious and violent crimes.
