In 1986, a number of PACs were created to get rid of Chief Justice Rose Bird in the reconfirmation election of that year. One aimed at Bird only. Several aimed at Bird, Grodin and Reynoso, all of whom had been appointed by Jerry Brown. Once aimed at the previous three plus Stanley Mosk, a Pat Brown appointee.
When the heads of the different PACs were asked to meet with Gov. Deukmejian, they had planned to ask for his support and that of the California Republican Party, but they had little hope in getting it. What they did get blew them away.
Deukmejian agreed that the removal of Bird, Grodin and Reynoso was of the highest priority. He was willing to make this an issue in his re-election campaign and use the full backing of the institutional California Republican Party -- provided the PACs agreed to some basic terms.
The major media outlets, particularly the Los Angeles Times, went on the warpath against this project. The Times logic was especially egregious. All judges should be appointed for life, the Times argued, so reconfirmation elections were actually a terrible flaw in the state Constitution. Thus, the voters -- whether they agreed with the justices or not -- were morally to bound to vote for reconfirmation. It was a smarmy argument.
In the end, the election provided one of the few moments of clarity in California politics, as did the recent recall election. The Left is still seething from 1986.