A true grass-roots campaign:One South Pasadenan plainly...

A true grass-roots campaign:

One South Pasadenan plainly favors Proposition 215, the marijuana for medical treatment measure. This resident is displaying a DOLE-KEMP sign that was altered to read:

DO HEMP.

MIND-ALTERING DRUGS (CONT.): A Malibu cafe, meanwhile, has a bit of advice for voters who feel they can’t face the ballot this year without first taking a couple of drinks.

THE CANDIDATES MAY CAMPAIGN NEGATIVELY. . . . But you’re supposed to think positively and vote.

Tony Robbins, billed as the “Peak Performance Coach” to notables such as Andre Agassi, Quincy Jones, Lady Di and President Clinton, will appear via satellite from L.A. on CNN throughout the day, urging us plain folks to vote.

WHICH REMINDS US: Scott Dewees snapped a photo of a vanity plate that would seem to sum up the feelings of many regarding the innumerable political campaigns of this season. s

MEASURE KILLER B: L.A. County Voter Information pamphlets have filled leftover space that had been set aside for campaign statements with public service announcements. In some pamphlets, one entire page is devoted to the pros and cons (mostly cons) of a winged immigrant--the Africanized honeybee. Killer bee, for short.

SURE THEY WANT US NOW: Bob Dole, who refuses to concede California, has visited the Southland several times. Bill Clinton, it seems, is here every other day. It wasn’t always that way with White House aspirants, though. The first American president to visit L.A. was the 19th to hold the office--Rutherford B. Hayes, who stopped by for six hours in 1880.

LIST OF THE DAY: It’s time for a quick review of American presidents and their links to L.A.:

* When Hayes arrived in L.A., he was several days late and a flustered Mayor James Toberman committed the social gaffe of the year in those more conservative times--he accidentally ushered Mrs. Hayes into a men’s clothing store.

* Democrat William Jennings Bryan brought his presidential campaign to L.A. in 1896. His Republican challenger, William McKinley, didn’t bother to show; a Republican congressman represented him. McKinley won anyway.

* The Obscure Presidents section of Monterey Park consists of Polk Way, Harrison Road, Buchanan and Pierce places, and Van Buren, Tyler, Taylor and Fillmore drives.

* Presidential place names that have been recalled: Harding High (now University), Coolidge High (now Verdugo Hills) and the Nixon Freeway (now the Marina Freeway).

* Theodore Roosevelt pronounced the city’s name as Loss-AN-gee-lees.

* A giant chair built for the 1909 visit of 300-plus-pounder William Howard Taft was later installed at Occidental College. It’s not known whether Oxy grad Jack Kemp ever attempted to sit in it.

miscelLAny:

Who’s within reach of victory in the presidential sweepstakes? Well, White House Place in Midtown L.A. is seven blocks from Clinton Street. Dole Court, on the other hand, is in Diamond Bar, while Dole Place is near Palmdale.