Candidate Loses Bid to Reinstate Web Page

A state Senate candidate on Wednesday lost a court bid to reinstate an Internet web page through Cal State Northridge’s computers that featured a picture of his opponent’s face morphing into a skeletal death mask.

John Birke, an attorney and Democratic candidate in the 19th Senate District, failed to win a court order that would have temporarily restrained the university from blocking his campaign web page that he wants restored before Tuesday’s election.

The university pulled the plug on the web site on Oct. 18, saying it was improper to use state computers to benefit a partisan political campaign.

But Birke, 32, has cast the issue as one of free speech, accusing the university of violating a student’s constitutional rights.

The web site was posted on the World Wide Web through the university’s computer by Christopher Landers, 32, a Cal State Northridge student and Birke supporter.

The page urged people to vote for Birke and criticized Birke’s opponent, state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), for taking “close to $75,000 from the tobacco industry’s merchants of death.”

Using video technology, it included a picture of Wright’s smiling face that slowly evolved into a grinning skeleton and then back to her original complexion.

On Wednesday, Birke went to Los Angeles Superior Court on grounds that the university violated Lander’s constitutional rights to free speech and to due process by erasing his intellectual property without consulting him.

But Cal State attorney Donna Ziegler argued that the university cannot allow its computers to be used for partisan politics, citing a state Supreme Court ruling that “the government may not ‘take sides’ in an election contest.”

Judge Robert H. O’Brien sided with the university by denying a temporary restraining order, but set a hearing date for Dec. 19.