Onek is the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Criminal
Justice at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and a former
legal-services lawyer and juvenile-justice activist. He was in the news
earlier this year for his role in a kerfuffle over whether Supervisor
David Campos inappropriately lobbied police commissioners with text
messages during a hearing on TASER stun-guns. (Onek made public a
text he had received from Campos calling his own, pro-TASER stance "very
disappointing.")
The race to succeed Harris could get tricky. If she leaves office early to become A.G. -- and that's far from assured, since she's facing a tough opponent in Los Angeles D.A. Steve Cooley, the Republican nominee -- the mayor has the power to appoint her successor. However, since Mayor Gavin Newsom is also running for the statewide office of lieutenant governor and might be vacating his city post at the same time, the choice could fall to a new mayor appointed by the board of supervisors.
In other words, it's unclear at the moment exactly whose vote Onek should be seeking.
