The November ballot initiative that adds new penalties and restrictions on sex offenders became the story of the day today in the gubernatorial race between the two leading candidates, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Phil Angelides.

Angelides, who so far had not taken a formal position on Proposition 83 (known as “Jessica’s Law”), today endorsed the initiative long supported by Schwarzenegger and other Republicans.

At an event in Los Angeles, Angelides said that Prop 83 won’t go far enough. As a result, the Democratic candidate endorsed a series of other measures, many of which can be found in a bill pending in the Legislature, SB 1128 by Sen. Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose). The Angelides campaign says he would go beyond those two proposals, with measures like lifetime “intensive” probation or parole, and more education resources for preventing sex crimes (though it’s not yet clear how much money he’s calling for to be spent on this).

Interestingly, Phil Angelides’ call for approval of both the initiative and the legislative bill is somewhat at odds with several Democrats in the Legislature, who see SB 1128 as an alternative to the ballot measure– and an improvement, to boot.

For example, some supporters of the bill point to the fact that SB 1128 would punish sex offenders who loiter around places where kids are found, while Jessica’s Law focuses only on where sex offenders actually live.

Most notably in that group of ‘Yes on SB 1128/No on Prop 83′ is Senate President Don Perata (D-Oakland), who was quoted in Capitol Weekly newspaper last week as saying that he will oppose Prop 83 because it was “thrown together without sufficient care.”

As you might expect, Team Arnold jumped on the Angelides announcement as a case of much ado about nothing– in particular, criticizing the Democrat for what they characterize as a “me too” strategy. “Where the governor leads on behalf of Californians, Angelides follows in the negative spirit of partisanship,” said Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Matt David in a written statement.

To which Angelides spokesman Brian Brokaw replied: “In nearly three years in office, Governor Schwarzenegger has failed to take real action to adequately protect the public from sex offenders.”

In effect, both sides seem to know that ‘get tough on crime’ measures are just the kind of emotional issues on which a statewide political campaign can turn.