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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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Much At Stake In California'a
Redistricting System
By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento
California Progress Report.com
October 16, 2007
As the 1980’s began, Democrats controlled both houses of the
legislature and, with their sitting Governor, Jerry Brown providing
a signature, and his Court ratifying that judgment, the entire
government of California.
As a result, redistricting in 1981 was strictly a Democratic
affair. In the State Senate, districts were modified to take care of
population changes, but otherwise incumbents kept what they had. It
satisfied the Democrats – and the Republicans.
In the Assembly, then new Speaker Willie Brown was struggling to
increase the 50% support he held among the Democrats while holding
on to the Republican votes that had elected him the previous
November. But Assembly redistricting proved difficult. The seats
short of population were in Democratic areas (Bay Area, Los
Angeles). Brown thought to resolve it by dropping a Republican seat
in the Bay Area and a Democratic seat in LA. Republicans, believing
a ‘fair’ redistricting would give them net gains, revolted. They
withdrew their support for Brown. But Brown survived because the
dissident Democrats closed ranks behind him.
Redistricting made Brown a Democratic Speaker in fact.
Embracing necessity, Brown accepted the recommendations of the
Democratic Congressional Delegation provided by his old mentor Rep.
Phil Burton. I’ll leave it to historians to describe the details,
but that was a gerrymander, providing Democrats with enough
additional seats to keep President Reagan from having a Republican
Congress after the 1982 elections.
It was Congress, not the Legislature, that was the focus of most
redistricting mayhem
The Court’s let the new Congressional lines stand after a
Republican referendum, and they voted predictably Democratic.
Republicans believed they could strike the lines in Federal Court,
and sued. Eight years later they lost as the U.S. Supreme Court
upheld the use of partisan considerations to draw lines. It was at
that point that serious GOP efforts began to recruit US Senator Pete
Wilson away from his federal career pattern and into Governor of
California where he could thwart a repeat of 1982.
Prior to this, a Republican lawmaker had used his personal
fortune to qualify a ballot measure that would substitute a GOP
gerrymander for the plan adopted by the Legislature in 1982. Before
the measure faced voters, the California Supreme Court struck it
down, arguing that redistricting was a once-a-decade event. This so
angered Republican forces that they mounted a campaign against the
Chief Justice and her closest cohorts in the subsequent election –
and defeated them all.
A new Court majority. Governor Pete Wilson. A House of
Representatives that stayed Democratic in the face of the Reagan
revolution. The transformation of Willie Brown from a bipartisan
figure to the most voracious Democrat in California’s history.
Serious events traceable directly to the Constitutional provision
that gives the Legislature the responsibility of redrawing district
lines each decade.
Bill Cavala was Deputy Director of the Assembly Speaker’s
Office of Member Services where he worked for over 30 years.
He attended undergraduate and graduate school in the 1960’s
and received a doctorate in political science at UC Berkeley. He
taught political science at UC Berkeley during the 1970's while he
worked part-time for the State Assembly.
Cavala left teaching at UC Berkeley and went to work for
Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in 1981 until his tenure as Speaker
ended in 1995, and he has worked for his five successors as Speaker
up to and including Speaker Fabian Nunez.
Mr. Cavala manages election campaigns for Democratic
candidates.
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