In what will quickly become a battle of legal opinions and political accusations, Attorney General Bill Lockyer has filed a lawsuit to remove the redistricting initiative, Proposition 77, from the November 8 special election ballot.

The announcement, made late this afternoon, pits the Democrat Lockyer against GOP Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, not to mention Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, claims that activist Ted Costa's initiative campaign broke the law, because some of the forms circulated for signatures had different language than the one submitted for approval to the state.

How significant the language changes were depends on who you ask, and it will now be up to a judge to decide. In a letter to Lockyer on Thursday, McPherson vowed to place Prop 77 on the ballot unless a court says otherwise.

"The use of different initiatives cannot be tolerated," said Lockyer in a written statement.