Clintons, a billionaire death penalty backer and legal weed

Good morning. On behalf of The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board, welcome to The Take, your opinion-politics newsletter. Please sign up for it here

We open with the Clintons in California, shift to billionaire Henry Nicholas III and the death penalty, review takes on homelessness, take whacks at Jerry Brown and at catchy initiatives. We’re looking at you, Gavin Newsom.

Take that

Bill Clinton visits the Land Park home of Phil Angelides for a fund-raiser today, Hillary Clinton will be in Hillsborough on Wednesday, and Clinton political director Amanda Renteria was on the phone with me over the weekend.

Among her points: Clinton is “building an infrastructure” for down-ballot Democratic victories in November. Have to wonder: Are either Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders taking similar steps? Renteria knows something about the importance of political infrastructure, or lack of it.

Could Trump put California in play in November? “I just don’t believe Californians who have welcomed diversity … will support a guy who has demonized so many groups.”

On the NRA’s endorsement of Trump: “Frankly, I don’t think she is interested in” NRA support.

On any fall-out from Gavin Newsom’s possible initiative to further limit firearms in California: “Having people engaged in this issue is positive for us.”

Take a number: $200,000

Henry T. Nicholas III, a billionaire philanthropist, gave $200,000 last week to place the pro-death penalty initiative on the November ballot. Nicholas had been quiet politically lately. But in the 2007-08 election cycle, he gave $5 million to a crime victims measure, Marsy’s Law, named for Nicholas’ sister, a UC Santa Barbara student who was murdered in 1983. In 2003-04, he gave $3 million to defeat an initiative to soften the three-strikes sentencing law. Nicholas’ reemergence should make clear that death penalty opponents have a fight on their hands.

Our take

Endorsement: Only better supervisors will control El Dorado County growth.

Dan Walters: Jerry Brown hopes to leave before the economic ax falls, not exactly a profile in courage.

Jock O’Connell: Jerry Brown’s administration creates self-inflicted barriers to trade, and has an antiquated grasp of transportation logistics.

Dan Morain: Treasurer John Chiang’s story of disco, aspirations and pain.

Jack Ohman: Why are there are so many Hillary Clinton haters, and why am I getting all these angry emails?

Phil Serna: Sheriff Scott Jones should end his disappointing support for Donald Trump.

Tom Hayden: Lunch with Donald Trump, Gerry Adams and a whiff of gunpowder.

Markos Kounalakis: How safe are we?

Marcos Breton: Think Darrell Steinberg isn’t tough? Think again.

Taking issue: Homelessness

Maybe, finally, lawmakers will get serious about confronting homelessness. Editorial writers have been urging focus for years. Our latest: Sacramento has a shot at succeeding where others fail. The L.A. Times: How do we pay for homeless housing? The (San Jose) Mercury News: We can save hundreds of millions by housing the homeless.

Their take

The San Francisco Chronicle endorses Kamala Harris, saying there are worse traits than an abundance of caution.

Debra J. Sanders of The Chronicle on Bernie Sanders’ desire to monkey-wrench Wall Street.

The Redding Record Searchlight cites a sharp rise in property crime and says Proposition 47 is making life miserable for a fair number of Shasta County residents.

The Mercury News urges Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom to withdraw the gun control initiative he plans to place on the November ballot. He backed Proposition 47, by the way.

The Seattle Times raises an important question about Hamza Warsame, a smart, ambitious 16-year-old Seattle college student who likely jumped from a balcony in a panic after smoking pot for the first time. Washington’s Initiative 502 promised to mitigate abuse among teens, as does the Gavin Newsom-Sean Parker initiative headed for California’s November ballot.

Syndicates’ take

Kathleen Parker: A contest between a scheming fake and a dangerous bluffer.

Dana Milbank: Donald Trump bets on mass amnesia.

Ruben Navarrette: FDR may be invoked this election, but he won’t be repeated.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: No, Donald Trump, the most dangerous place in the world is not Ferguson.

And finally:

Joyce Terhaar illustrates the problem with the California Public Records Act, by counting days since The Bee started requesting public records from UC Davis.

A special HT to Daniel Borenstein of The East Bay Times for his take on Mt. Diablo school trustees Linda Mayo, Cheryl Hansen, Brian Lawrence, Barbara Oaks and Debra Mason, who wasted $369,000 of public money in a futile attempt to keep a report hidden. A cautionary tale.

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 5:32 AM with the headline "Clintons, a billionaire death penalty backer and legal weed."