SACRAMENTO — Backers of a ballot initiative to repeal a gas tax approved by the Legislature in April scored an unusual victory this week, with a judge agreeing that California’s attorney general gave the effort a “misleading” title and summary — and announcing he would rewrite it himself.

At a hearing Friday, Sacramento County Superior Court judge Timothy Frawley reiterated the preliminary opinion he issued earlier in the week, finding it problematic that the words “tax” and “fee” don’t appear in the title of the gas-tax repeal effort.

“The problem with the Attorney General’s title and summary is that an ordinary, reasonable elector, who is otherwise unfamiliar with the initiative, would not be able to discern what the initiative would do,” Frawley wrote on Tuesday.

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Latest line: A good week for Quintero, bad one for Rendon Frawley’s decision to rewrite the language is a clear victory for the campaign, said Travis Allen, a Republican assemblyman and candidate for governor who launched the repeal initiative and, later, challenged its title in court.

“It is the constitutional mandate of the attorney general to write a true and impartial ballot title and summary that in no way prejudices voters toward the measure,” Allen said in an interview Friday. “It’s very clear that (Attorney General) Xavier Becerra has not lived up to the California constitution and did not prepare an honest title and summary and so the court is going to do his job for him.”

A spokeswoman for Becerra declined to comment on the matter Friday.

The initiative seeks to repeal a package of taxes and fees that would generate over $5 billion annually for road, bridge and culvert repairs and public transit. To qualify for the November 2018 ballot, Allen’s campaign must gather 365,880 valid signatures from registered California voters within 180 days from when he receives the updated title and summary.

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The transportation package was championed by Gov. Jerry Brown as a long overdue solution for the state’s crumbling roads and was approved by the Legislature by a two-thirds vote in April. It includes a 12-cent gas tax, a 20-cent diesel tax and an increase of between $25 to $175 in annual vehicle registration fees, depending on the value of the car. It also is set to add a $100 annual fee for zero-emission vehicles beginning in 2020.

The gas taxes are set to kick in Nov. 1, and the vehicle license fees would go up Jan. 1.

Becerra, a former Democratic congressman from the Los Angeles Area, was tapped by Brown late last year to succeed Kamala Harris after her election to the U.S. Senate. He won legislative confirmation in January and has since announced he will run for re-election in 2018.

The title Becerra placed on the gas-tax repeal reads: “Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes.”

The judge’s decision to rewrite it, Allen said, shows “there is still the rule of law in California.”

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“They tried as hard as they could in court to mislead the California voters,” he said, “and make it very unclear that this is a repeal of a massive tax.”