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2008
Gerrymandering The Vote: How A “Dirty
Dozen” States Suppress As Many As 9 Million Voters
Democratic Leadership Council
June 2008
Editorial: Perata's Power Play
San Francisco Chronicle
June 30, 2008
Democrats Fear Redistricting Measure Would
Curb Their Power In State
San Francisco Chronicle
June 27, 2008
Election-Map Initiative Helps Voters, State
Progress
Sacramento Bee
June 27, 2008
Politics And California Redistricting
CaliforniaProgressReport.com
June 27, 2008
Millions On Line In Ballot Drives
Sacramento Bee
June 24, 2008
Democratic Leaders Accused Of Pressuring
Supporters Of Redistricting Measure
Contra Costa Times Sacramento Bureau
June 21, 2008
California Is Branded Among A 'Dirty
Dozen' On Gerrymandering
Los Angeles Times
June 19, 2008
Redistricting In California: Control or
Democracy?
CaliorniaProgressReport.com
June 19, 2008
Changing Method Of Redistricting Makes
Ballot
San Francisco Chronicle
June 18, 2008
Government Reformer Down On Redistricting
Initiative
PolitickerCA.com
June 18, 2008
Redistricting Initiative Makes California
Ballot
San Jose Mercury News
June 17, 2008
Democratic Party Takes Stands On Ballot
Measures
CaliforninaMajorityReport.com
June 17, 2008
Cavala: Republicans Kill Reform Bill That
Hurts GOP Chances While Democrats Support 'Reform' That Hurts Their Chances
CaliforniaProgressReport.com
June 9, 2008
Speaking With The New Speaker
Los Angeles Times
June 2, 2008
Two Plans Created To Reform Districts
Modesto Bee
May 19, 2008
New Speaker Should Focus On Public
Interest
Los Angeles Daily News
May 13, 2008
Why Schwarzenegger's Redistricting Plan
Won't Work
California Majority Report.com
May 13, 2008
Tony Quinn: Redistricting Reform OK, But
It's Only A Start
Sacramento Bee
May 11, 2008
Governor May Face Donor Fatigue
Contra Costa Times
May 11, 2008
California Redistricting Plan Faces Hurdles
Capitol Weekly
May 7, 2008
Dan Walters: Competing Proposals For Remap
Sacramento Bee
May 7, 2008
Initiative On Redistricting Closer To
Ballot
San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Nunez Pushes Ethics Plan As Rival Petitions
Are Filed
Sacramento Bee
May 7, 2008
To Get Leadership Reform, We First Need
Redistricting
Los Angeles Daily News
May 1, 2008
Good Intentions Could Harm Redistricting
Ballot Measure
Los Angeles Times
April 28, 2008
Redistricting On Track To Qualify,
Consultant Says
New America Foundation.com
April 23, 2008
Why Are GOP Contributors Putting Big Money
Into Redistricting Reform?
California Progress Report.com
April 19, 2008
Gov's
Giving To Remap Measure Tops $1 million
Sacramento Bee Capital Alert
April 21, 2008
‘Due
Process’ Democrats Have Their Heads Buried in the California Sand
California Progress Report.com
April 20, 2008
Opinion: Seeing The Light
Los Angeles Daily News
April 19, 2008
California
Voters FIRST Presents A Balanced And Bipartisan Effort For Redistricting
Reform
California Progress Report.com
April 17, 2008
Schwarzenegger's
Redistricting Plan Comes Under Fire
Contra Costa Times
April 17, 2008
Group Says Plan Will Put A Stop To
Gerrymandering
The Simi Valley Acron
April 4, 2008
The Need For Redistricting Reform From
This California Democrat’s Perspective
California Progress Report.com
April 4, 2008
Labor Says No To
Schwarzenegger/Republican/Common Cause Redistricting Measure
The California Majority Report.com
April 02, 2008
Revenge In Attack On Legislative
Redistricting?
California Progress Report.com
March 31, 2008
Weintraub: Governor Gets Another Shot At
Redistricting Reform
Sacramento Bee
March 30, 2008
Editorial: Can't Legislature Do Better Than
Bills On Dogs, Donkeys?
The Fresno Bee
March 30, 2008
Walters: Voters Irate At Budget Posturing
Sacramento Bee
March 28, 2008
New Foundation To Campaign For More Efficient
California Government
Sacramento Bee
March 27, 2008
Editorial: California Voters Should Support
Redistricting Ballot Measure
Fresno Bee
March 24, 2008
Editorial: Redraw the Map
Los Angeles Daily News
March 22, 2008
Walters: Court Ruling Offers Hope to
Dysfunctional California Politics
Sacramento Bee
March 19, 2008
Supreme Court to Hear Major Redistricting
Case
The Thicket at State Legislatures (ncsl.com)
March 18, 2008
Editorial: Let Citizens Redraw the Map
The Torrance Daily Breeze
March 17, 2008
Walters: Redistrict Reformers Miss Mark
Sacramento Bee
March 10, 2008
Let Citizens
Redraw Map
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
March 9, 2008
Governor Proposes Redistricting Ballot
Measure
North County Times
March 8, 2008
Redistricting Initiative Has Strong
Republican Backing
San Jose Mercury News
March 6, 2008
Governor Gathers Signatures to Qualify
Redistricting Measure
San Jose Mercury News
March 4, 2008
Manipulative Lawmakers Playing To The Crowd
Fresno Bee
February 14, 2008
State Voters Need To Do What Lawmakers
Won't
Los Angeles Daily News
February 14, 2008
Editorial: What We Need In Sacramento,
Redistricting, Not Retaliation
San Jose Mercury News
February 14, 2008
Redistricting Reform, Not Longer Terms, Is
The Answer
California Republic.org
February 12, 2008
The Buzz: A Hardball Tactic Could Ricochet
Sacramento Bee
February 11, 2008
Wake Up, Sacramento Media! Wake Up! Wake
Up! Wake Up!
San Diego Union Tribune
February 8, 2008
Editorial: Passive Aggressive Lawmakers
Just Play to the Crowd
Fresno Bee
February 8, 2008
Nunez Takes Blame For Prop. 93 Loss
Los Angeles Daily News
February 7, 2008
Weingand: Voters Got A Whiff and Said 'No'
Sacramento Bee
February 7, 2008
Lawmakers Believe In Term Limits But
Oppose The Measure
North County Times
February 4, 2008
Good For Us
Los Angeles Times
February 4, 2008
Commentary: A Conversation with Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger
Sacramento Bee
January 20, 2008
Walters: Two Party Structure Under Fire
Sacramento Bee
January 18, 2008
Walters: Governor's Brownian Flip-Flops
Sacramento Bee
January 16, 2008
Editorial: Corruption of a Good Idea
San Francisco Chronicle
January 15, 2008
Governor Supports Term Limit Measure
Sacramento Bee
January 15, 2008
A Deceptive Prop. 93
San Francisco Chronicle
January 10, 2008
Use Prop. 93 To Say 'No"
dailybreeze.com
January 3, 2008
more
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'Post-Partisanship' Fails
By Tony Quinn
San Diego Union Tribune
October 7, 2007
Fresh from his landslide victory in 2006, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
confidently proclaimed 2007 “the year of post-partisanship.” He
was wrong; California politics are more partisan than ever, and the
Legislature more bitterly divided on partisan grounds than probably
anytime in its history.
Why didn't it work? For one thing, post-partisanship defies the
demographic shifts occurring in California that are making this
state more politically polarized, not less. Liberal and Democratic
areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles are
becoming more liberal; conservative and Republican areas such as the
Central Valley and Inland Empire are becoming more conservative.
This results in a more polarized Legislature, especially since
gerrymandered legislative districts and closed primaries mean that
the most liberal Democrats and the most conservative Republicans get
elected. The major lesson of the legislative session that just ended
is that this crop of politicians cannot do the most basic thing they
were elected to do: legislate.
This is because there is no longer a center in California's
elective politics. The voters have drifted away from both major
parties; the percentage of registrants who classify themselves as
Democrats and as Republicans has declined while the number who call
themselves independent goes up every year.
The governor might want to accommodate this trend, but not the
Legislature. There are no independents holding state office; every
legislator is either a Democrat or a Republican. The last two
Assembly members who called themselves centrists, Democratic
Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Contra Costa, and Republican
Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Los Angeles, left office last year due
to term limits.
Schwarzenegger thought he could swim against this partisan tide,
but instead he has drowned in it. He was elected in the 2003 recall
as basically a mainstream Republican, and in 2004 he campaigned for
GOP candidates, but with little success. In 2005, he ventured into a
special election championing very Republicans positions, and was
thoroughly defeated.
So, facing re-election in 2006, he jettisoned his largely
Republican political and policy operation, bringing in new people
with less partisan ties and ran for re-election from a newly created
centrist position. This strategy brought him great success; he won a
third of Democratic votes in 2006 and carried the independent vote
overwhelmingly.
But it also laid the groundwork for his failures in 2007. The new
centrist Schwarzenegger took no interest in the election of other
Republicans, even to the point of not helping Republican Secretary
of State Bruce McPherson whom Schwarzenegger appointed to the job.
McPherson then lost to Democrat Debra Bowen.
Republicans were seething. “It's all about Arnold” became
their bitter lament. In GOP circles, post-partisanship did not mean
constructing a new third way; it simple meant moving away from the
Republican label. Their unhappiness played out in this summer's
budget stalemate in which a state budget Schwarzenegger had
negotiated largely with Democrats was held up by a handful of Senate
Republicans for nearly two months.
In the end, Republicans were forced to back down but only after
Schwarzenegger promised to veto $700 million out of the budget, more
money than he had originally intended to remove using his line-item
veto.
But the vitriolic relations between Schwarzenegger and his party
persisted until the end of the session in September and into the
special session that is still dragging on. In the words of one
highly placed Republican Senate staffer: “They just can't stand
him.”
Schwarzenegger's post-partisan agenda for 2007 collapsed because
he could not deliver members of his own party to vote for his
proposals. The budget and later health care reform made that clear.
Since he could not deliver his own party, he had little leverage in
his bargaining with the other party.
The collapse of redistricting reform makes the point.
Schwarzenegger called for redistricting reform almost from the
time he was first elected, and backed an initiative to take
redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature in his 2005
special election. This year it seemed that redistricting reform
would actually happen.
Democrats would put a “post-partisan” redistricting reform on
the ballot in exchange for Schwarzenegger's support for their
initiative to extend their Senate and Assembly terms by four and six
years, respectively. The term-limits modification that allows
Speaker Fabian NÚñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who
are termed out in 2008, to remain in office will be on the February
presidential primary ballot.
It didn't happen. The Republican right opposes the term-limits
extension and partisan Democrats will not give up their ability to
draw congressional districts. Republicans demanded keeping
congressional districts in the redistricting mix, and so the issue
stalemated at the end of the regular legislative session.
Democrats have determined they can pass the term-limits
initiative even if the governor does not support it, and the hawks
in the Democratic Caucus never really wanted to give up their power
to draw district lines. The idea that the “post-partisan Arnold”
could somehow entice huge numbers of centrist voters to back these
reforms didn't carry much weight in the end.
But health care reform is the best example of the failure of
post-partisanship, and it's no surprise. Health care has become the
most partisan domestic issue in the United States; Democrats are
hoping to ride universal health care coverage into the White House.
And yet the governor approached health care as though he could
somehow erase the political fault lines.
Since the collapse of the Clinton health care plan in 1994, this
issue has been a third rail in American politics. Republicans would
like to ignore it, hoping that market forces somehow would resolve
the issue. But there is no market mechanism in American health care,
with an employer-based health insurance system where someone else
pays all the bills and costs are just passed along.
Democrats take two tracks: Some liberal groups favor a socialized
system based on the Canadian and European models; it goes under the
name “single payer” in this country. There would be no more
private insurance, only a government plan. The problem is that the
Europeans are moving away from socialized medicine. If you get
really sick in Great Britain you go to a private doctor.
Schwarzenegger championed a more moderate approach, but one also
generally favored by Democrats. Keep the current employer-based
health care system but require all Californians to have insurance,
make all employers provide insurance for their employees, and
require insurance companies to sell to all comers. The state would
provide insurance for those who cannot afford it.
In one sense this is a centrist approach. Requiring all people to
have insurance enshrines a Republican idea of personal
responsibility; mandating employers to provide insurance has long
been championed by labor and by Democrats.
The compromise likely to emerge from the special session will be
shaped around these ideas. Legislative Democrats are largely taking
the health care skeleton that Schwarzenegger gave them – which
reflected their approach, anyway – and are putting a little meat
on it.
But the elephant in the room is how to pay for it. Democrats want
to impose most of the costs on business; Schwarzenegger wants to
enact new fees and impose less costs on business. Because the
post-partisan Schwarzenegger has no clout with Republicans, he
received no support for his higher fees and taxes spending
mechanism.
He could not draw Republicans into actually negotiating with
Democrats, actually legislating a post-partisan or any sort of
bipartisan health care reform plan. Throughout the special session
Republicans have sat on the sideline and complained.
But there cannot be any health care reform without the funding
mechanism to pay for it. Republicans stopped that in its tracks by
refusing to provide the necessary votes for Schwarzenegger's
tax-and-fee scheme. So the governor is in the odd position of having
to promote a ballot measure, scheduled for sometime next year, to
get funding for his project.
It's likely Republicans would be bitterly opposed, with
Schwarzenegger campaigning across the state hand in hand with
Democratic legislators. Not exactly the post-partisan world the
governor envisioned a year ago.
If that idea is dead, what should the governor do? He could draw
closer to Republican legislators by vetoing bills they don't like
– he still has many bills to either sign or veto from the session
that just ended. This might win him some loyalty from Republican
legislators next year.
Or he could continue alienating himself from the GOP core as he
has been doing by championing climate change issues and expanded
government involvement in health care. Here at least he would appear
to be on the popular side of these issues with the voters, if not
with his party.
But one thing he cannot do is to pretend that post-partisanship
works. In a thoroughly polarized political world, he has to choose
one direction or the other.
Quinn is co-editor of the California Target Book, a
nonpartisan analysis of legislative and congressional elections
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