Capitol Alert

Californians voters going to the polls in November will again decide the fate of the death penalty.

A measure to abolish the death penalty and replace it with a maximum sentence of life behind bars without parole has qualified for the Nov. 6 ballot, the Secretary of State confirmed today. The measure, backed by a coalition that includes the American Civil Liberties Union and some law enforcement and victims rights groups, would apply to inmates currently on death row.

Supporters say capital punishment, which voters added to the state's books in 1978, costs California more than $100 million a year while leading to very few executions because of the time it takes to go through the appeals process.

Proponents had submitted to election officials nearly 800,000 petition signatures earlier this year. The measure officially made the cut after a random signature check conducted by counties projected that at least 555,236 of those signatures were from registered voters.

The death penalty initiative is the fifth ballot measure to be added to the November ballot. Voters are also set to consider a measure banning the use of automatic payroll deduction to collect money for political spending, a measure on auto insurance rates, a referendum to overturn the newly drawn state Senate district maps and a $11 billion in bonds for water infrastructure projects and conservation.

Nadia Lockyer, the embattled wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, acknowledged she wrote the e-mail accusing her husband of once supplying her with drugs, according to a San Jose Mercury News story that ran Sunday.

She previously claimed that her former methamphetamine-addicted lover had hacked into her e-mail account to send the accusation to a reporter earlier this month. In the interview with the Mercury News, Nadia Lockyer said, "It did come from me and I made the mistake of regretting sending it. I ask the public not to hold anything against my husband for actions that happened a long time ago."

Bill Lockyer, a former state attorney general, denies his wife's claim.

"The allegation that Bill Lockyer provided her drugs was B.S. when we didn't know who said it, and it's still B.S.," spokesman Tom Dresslar said Monday.

Nadia Lockyer announced her resignation Friday from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, where she had served little over a year after winning election in 2010 with $1.5 million in campaign funding from her husband's war chest.

She said in a statement that she was leaving office so she could "focus on the well-being of my child, recovery from chemical dependency and interpersonal violence, and transitioning to work in the private sector." Her mention of "interpersonal violence" was apparently a reference to allegedly having suffered a Feb. 3 assault at the hands of her onetime lover Stephen Chikhani in a Newark hotel that exposed her personal problems.

Elsewhere in the Mercury News interview, Nadia Lockyer alleged that her husband said to her during a fight in February, "Why don't you just go ahead and commit suicide?"

Dresslar responded, "They had a heated argument, like married couples do on occasion. Nothing unusual. They both said things - not just him - they both said things that were hurtful and that they regret."

Allan Hoffenblum, one of the state's most experienced political campaign consultants and handicappers, says that nearly three dozen congressional and legislative contests could be runoffs between candidates of the same party, thanks to the state's new "top-two" primary system.

For the first time, candidates from all parties will be listed on the June 5 primary ballots and the two top vote-getters, regardless of party, will face each other in the November election.

There are 80 Assembly seats, 53 congressional seats and 20 state Senate seats up this year, and Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, a bible for election handicappers, says as many as 34 could wind up with same-party contests in November.

Hoffenblum, writing for the Fox & Hounds political website, sees a potential for 22 Assembly districts falling into that category, plus eight congressional seats and four in the state Senate.

By far, Hoffenblum writes, the greatest potential is for Democrat vs. Dermocrat duels due to low Republican voter registration in coastal and urban areas.

A top political adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown won confirmation to the California State University Board of Trustees today.

Steve Glazer, who is helping run the Democratic governor's tax measure campaign, was approved by the state Senate by a vote of 31-5.

Glazer was appointed to the board by Brown last year. He faced an early May deadline for winning confirmation in the Senate.

While another Brown appointee to the board, former Chairman Herbert Carter, stalled in the face of Republican opposition, Glazer was able to secure the Republican support needed to achieve the two-thirds confirmation vote.

Senate Republican leader Bob Huff said that he was pleased with Glazer's demonstrated independence on the board and decision to vote against a generous campus president compensation package that was approved by the board amid tuition increases. Carter had voted for the pay package.

In additional to his political consulting work and role as an unpaid adviser to Brown, Glazer serves on the Orinda City Council.

Gov. Jerry Brown's Yale Law School classmate and close friend, Appellate Justice J. Anthony Kline, is mediating a judicial summit conference today that will attempt to heal the years-long political war that has divided the state's judiciary.

Kline served as Brown's legal adviser during his first governorship three decades ago, and Brown appointed him to the San Francisco-based 1st District Court of Appeal, where he is now presiding justice.

Today's meeting will involve Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and a number of prominent judges, including two representatives of the California Alliance of Judges, which has been highly critical of the State Judicial Council and the Administrative Office of the Courts, which the chief justice heads.

The breakaway group has sponsored legislation to shift financial power from the AOC and the Judicial Council to local judges, alleging that local courts are being starved for funds while the two central agencies waste money on bureaucracy and an unworkable computer system.

The Judicial Council recently stopped work on the computerized case management system and Cantil-Sakauye is pressing the Legislature for more money, citing $653 million in state support reduction in recent years. But she has bitterly opposed the Alliance's legislation as a breach of the court system's independence.

The California Taxpayers Association handed ammunition Monday to opponents of this year's proposed tax increases - a report that outlines $7.3 billion in operational savings and non-tax "revenue enhancements" in state and local governments.

That's roughly 5 percent of annual state and local tax collections and approaches the revenue estimates for Gov. Jerry Brown's sales and income tax boost and a rival income tax increase sponsored by wealthy attorney Molly Munger. Brown's measure would address the state's budget deficit while Munger's would boost spending on schools.

"This report makes tangible, pragmatic recommendations that will yield long-term savings to address our current fiscal constraints and get state and local governments back on solid financial footing," CalTax president Teresa Casazza said in a statement that accompanied the report's release.

CalTax is a Sacramento-based organization, supported mostly by business groups, that tracks state and local government tax and budget matters and generally opposes tax increases. Its report lists $4.01 billion in permanent savings items, another $104 million in one-time savings and $3.19 billion in revenue increases.

None of the individual proposals involves big money, as the Capitol defines it; they are a grab bag of operational changes, such as reducing lease costs and privatization of some public services, many of which have kicked around the Capitol for years, mostly as Republican suggestions.

The "revenue enhancements" are fewer and larger, such as cleaning up delinquent tax accounts that, CalTax says, could produce $2.3 billion in one-time revenue,

On Friday, we asked Facebook fans and Twitter followers to send us their picks for the top California politics story of the week. Share your thoughts on the question in the comments field of this piece.

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VIDEO: Dan Walters explains what's going on with jobs in California.

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See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

Read Dan Walters' columns here.

Dan Walters, in today's video report, gives his take on what's behind California's latest unemployment figures.

U.S. Rep. Howard Berman is in Sacramento to raise money for his closely watched -- and expensive -- campaign against fellow Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman in Southern California.

Gov. Jerry Brown, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez are among the listed hosts for the $1,000-a-plate reception at 5:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Grand Hotel. Click here to read the invitation.

Meanwhile, expect another busy week under the dome. Friday is the last day for policy committees to pass fiscal bills introduced in their house.

One talker, or should we say barker, that's up for discussion today is Senate Bill 969 by Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, to regulate pet groomers. Click on the links to see the Senate committee and the Assembly committee lineups. Both houses have floor sessions at noon.

Outside the Capitol, members of the California State Student Association are gathering on the north steps at 10 a.m. before the California State University students meet with legislators all day.

PHOTOS: The Department of Fish and Game's director, Chuck Bonham, is announcing the grand-prize winner of a wildlife photo contest sponsored by the department and California Watchable Wildlife. That event starts at 1 p.m. on the Capitol's south steps. The 12 top images will be displayed this week outside the govenor's office. Click here to read more.

VIGIL: Members of Impact Teen Drivers are conducting a vigil honoring teens and others who've died because of reckless or distracted driving. That event starts at 6 p.m. on the west steps.

CAKE AND CANDLES: Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Pomona, turns 47 today.

David Siders and Torey Van Oot contributed to this report.