California Ballot Fight Prelude to Rudy vs. Hillary

Battle lines have been drawn in the first major skirmish between the '08 presidential frontrunners, as their supporters wage a proxy war over a ballot initiative to redistribute California's electoral votes. Although both campaigns deny involvement in the initiative, the New York Times reports, the heavy hitters on both sides of the measure have ties to Giuliani or Clinton.

“Clinton’s people have taken the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive military strikes … and applied it to domestic campaigns,” said one analyst, who applauded the speedy response of Clinton supporters. Giuliani, for his part, now knows that covert support of an advantageous measure will not work against Clinton, seasoned as she is in backchannel fundraising. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)