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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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An Editor's Note:
Friends of Louis Vuitton
By John Diaz
San Francisco Chronicle
October 14, 2007
The two leaders of the California legislators had better start
polishing their resumes.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate
President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, would have been the biggest
beneficiaries of Proposition 93, the February ballot measure to
loosen term limits by allowing legislators to stay up to 12 years in
one house.
If it were to pass, both Núñez and Perata could stay in power
after 2008. If not, the two will be termed out of office.
The measure is a long shot, growing longer. And Núñez and
Perata have only themselves to blame.
Their actions - and inactions - have given the No on 93 folks all
the material they need to defeat the term-limits measure. The TV
spots are going to be devastating. They are likely to overwhelm the
many sound reasons to loosen term limits, which have created a
revolving-door legislature where members lack expertise, rely too
heavily on staff and lobbyists for guidance and feel too little
compulsion to take on the complex, long-term issues facing the
state.
The excesses of Speaker Willie Brown were the flash points of the
1990 measure that limited legislators to three terms (six years) in
the Assembly and two terms (eight years) in the Senate. Under Prop.
93, a legislator would be limited to 12 years, but it could be
served in one house.
Expect the name "Louis Vuitton" to loom large in
February 2008.
The potentially fatal blow to Proposition 93 was delivered with
the recent Los Angeles Times expose of Núñez's lavish spending
from his $5.3 million "Friends of Fabian Núñez" campaign
account. The reports portrayed a politician who traveled the world
in luxury in pursuit - he claims - of knowledge required to do the
people's business in Sacramento.
Some of the line items are certain to blast on your television
screen between now and February. Núñez spent $8,745 to stay at the
Hotel Arts in Barcelona, Spain; $5,149 for a meeting at Cave L'Avant
Garde wine shop in the Bordeaux region of France; $2,562 for two
"office expenses" at Louis Vuitton in Paris. His $80,000
of office expenses over the last two years included purchases at
Polo Ralph Lauren and Robert Talbott. His airline expenses this year
exceed $47,000.
The list goes on and on.
"He's a walking billboard for term limits," said Bob
Adney, director of the California Term Limits Defense Fund, which
wasted no time in exploiting the disclosures. On Tuesday, it filed a
complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission,
alleging that the speaker's use of campaign funds for personal
expenses violates state law.
Perata's use of campaign funds, while modest and provincial in
comparison with the globe-trotting Núñez, was the subject of a May
expose in the East Bay Express titled "Living Large." No
doubt some of those expenses - such as the trips to wine shops, the
62 meals in excess of $500 and the "office expenses" that
included artwork and a $6,669 outlay at a women's clothing shop -
will haunt him in the term-limits campaign.
The legality of these expenses is likely to depend on whether Núñez
and Perata can provide the FPPC with a more persuasive explanation
of their business purpose than they gave to the Times and Express
reporters. The line between "personal" and
"business" is not quite black and white. State law says
spending from campaign funds must be "reasonably or directly
related to a legitimate political, legislative or government
purpose."
The defense of Núñez's $1,000 purchase of gourmet cookies
should keep his lawyers well fed. But as a political matter, such
spending contributes to the perception that people in power lose
touch with the concept of public service.
"There's not too big a difference," Núñez told the
Times, "between how I live and how most middle-class people
live."
Oh, yes. Most working people - including, by the way, the
rank-and-file union members whose dues (along with corporate
donations) helped build the speaker's "Friends" account -
don't have a $3,199 stay at Rome's Hotel Parco on their monthly Visa
bills.
Even before the latest disclosures, the Yes on 93 campaign was
facing another self-inflicted wound from Núñez and Perata: Their
failure to come through with their promise to deliver redistricting
reform. The idea was that an independent commission, rather than the
politicians themselves, should be drawing district boundaries. It
would have made for a complementary ballot package - and each would
have advanced the concept of representative democracy.
Instead, we're left with one "reform" - and a thousand
arguments against it, in the details of the leaders' expense
reports.
John Diaz is The Chronicle's editorial page editor.
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