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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
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Editorial: Mad Maps
It's time to draw the line on gerrymandering
By John Fund
Wall Street Journal
October 15, 2007
Gerrymandering--the drawing of district lines to favor a particular
party, or incumbents in general--allows lawmakers to choose their
voters, rather than the other way around. Almost all incumbents
routinely win re-election and form a political elite that
California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says has built "a
fortress to keep the politicians in and the people out." In the
next few days, the governor will have to decide if he will back what
may be the last chance to substantially reform redistricting in
California before the 2010 census.
The need is certainly there. In California, lawmakers in both
parties have mapped out the state for their own benefit with the
precision of a plastic surgeon. Of the 153 seats theoretically up
for grabs last November--80 in the state Assembly, 20 in the Senate
and 53 in the U.S. Congress--only one changed parties. In 2004, not
a single one did.
It was after that election that Mr. Schwarzenegger proposed a
measure to have districts drawn by a commission made up of former
judges, whose work would be approved by the voters. He put it on a
2005 special election ballot as part of his "Reform
California" agenda. But he ran an unfocused campaign that was
outmatched by his public employee union opponents, and all of his
ideas were defeated.
But in order to ensure defeat of redistricting reform, both
Senate leader Don Perate and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez felt
compelled to pledge that they would move their own proposal to
create fair districts. "Our commitment . . . is to
fashion a bipartisan solution in a thoughtful way and put it on the
ballot next year," Mr. Perata told the Los Angeles Times back
in 2005.
Both men quickly lost their zeal once the redistricting measure
lost. Last month the Legislature adjourned for the second straight
year without acting on redistricting reform. The governor admitted
that Mr. Perada hadn't shown "much interest" in the
subject. Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton sheepishly
acknowledged he should never have believed legislative leaders would
limit their own power to draw districts. "Was I ever
gullible," he lamented.
Instead, both legislative leaders have made a top priority of
weakening the state's 17-year-old term limits law. Their brainchild,
Proposition 93, will appear on the statewide ballot next February,
along with the presidential primary. It is a convoluted measure
crafted in legislative back rooms. Backers sell it as a
strengthening of limits on legislative tenure, but in reality it
would allow Messrs. Perata and Nunez and most of their colleagues to
extend their time in office. Both men solemnly said they planned to
pair term limits with redistricting reform: "We can't put one
on the ballot without the other," Mr. Nunez told reporters in
2006. So much for that.
All of this presents Mr. Schwarzenegger with a dilemma. On the
one hand, he has said he would refuse to support any weakening of
term limits unless it's accompanied by a measure stripping
legislators of the power to draw their own districts. But on the
other hand, he has grown comfortable with the personal relationships
he has built with existing legislators. "He doesn't like
dealing with new people. He would like the players to stick around
so he can deploy his charm on them," says one Sacramento
lobbyist close to the governor's office. "It's possible he
could trade away support for disemboweling term limits as part of
some political deal."
But it's in the governor's interest to keep his pledge on term
limits and push for redistricting reform again. Messrs. Perata and
Nunez are currently stiffing him on his efforts to pass landmark
measures on water policy and health care. Letting them off the
term-limits hook would only weaken him, since the limit forcing him
to leave office in 2010 would remain in place while the two
Democratic leaders would remain power centers if their gutting of
term limits passes. .
"If he wants any legacy as a true reform governor, he should
back redistricting changes now when there is still a political
window for them before the 2010 census," says Roman Buhler,
once a top aide on election issues to former Rep. Bill Thomas, and
an adviser to the governor's failed 2005 redistricting reform. He
points out that a ballot measure to reform redistricting could
appear on the June (nonpresidential) primary ballot if supporters
start to collect signatures now. Experts agree that the June ballot,
which will not involve the hyperpartisanship and media clutter of a
November election, offers the best opportunity to pass a reform
measure.
He argues the political climate will be different in June 2008
than it was in 2005. Back then less than 70% of Republicans
supported the overly complex measure proposed by their own party's
governor. But today Mr. Schwarzenegger's approval rating is 59%, 25
points higher than in 2005. The Legislature's approval numbers have
hovered around 30% throughout the last three years. At the same
time, support for the general idea of taking away the power to draw
districts from the legislature has remained popular with voters, who
support the general idea by a 3-to-1 margin in most polls.
It's true Mr. Schwarzenegger has become estranged from GOP
legislators since he moved left after his 2005 defeats to embrace a
"postpartisan" agenda. But doing nothing on redistricting
before he leaves office in 2010 would turn California into something
approaching a one-party state without checks and balances. Tony
Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan
analysis of state politics, says that if Democrats retake the
governorship after Mr. Schwarzenegger's departure in 2010, it's
"pretty clear" that they would use their control of the
Legislature to push for the mother of all gerrymanders.
"Democrats will use their mapmaking power to try to achieve a
two-thirds majority in both houses of the legislature, thus wiping
out the ability of Republicans to influence budget and tax
legislation, which require a supermajority to pass," he wrote
in the Los Angeles Times.
You would think California Republicans would take an active
interest in the one-sided gerrymander that threatens them just over
the horizon. The last time Democrats pressed their control of the
redistricting pens, in 1981, they gained six congressional seats
through what the late Democratic Rep. Phil Burton called "my
contribution to modern art." One district was a 385-sided
polygon. Another, which had the jagged and contorted contours of a
Chinese dragon, included a floating "community" of boats
in Los Angeles harbor that was disconnected from the rest of the
district.
Almost everyone privately agrees that allowing California's
legislature to retain monopoly control of redistricting produces bad
government. It leads to polarizing elections in which moderates in
both parties get squeezed out in primaries. It allows special
interests to act as if they bought the Legislature--which in many
cases they did. But politicians never give up power voluntarily, so
the only way that district lines will be made more compact and
demographically coherent is through a voter initiative.
The problem is much bigger than California. Even in pivotal
elections like 1994 and 2006, most House races are mind-numbingly
uncompetitive. Of the 435 House races contested in 2004, a mere
seven incumbents lost. Only 37 of the victors received 55% or less
of the vote. And for every bipartisan gerrymander such as
California's, there is a Democratic one (North Carolina) and a
Republican (Florida).
Political competition is the lifeblood of American politics. The
ability to vote out incumbents has proved to be far more effective
than selectively enforced "ethics" rules. If
gerrymandering is allowed to become more sophisticated, voters and
defenders of good government will have to become more tenacious in
fighting it. It's time for Mr. Schwarzenegger to decide whose side
he is on--that of the Sacramento power brokers he railed against
when he won the historic 2003 recall election, or the people who
will be increasingly disenfranchised if gerrymandering isn't brought
under control.
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