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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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Weintraub: Governor takes risky '08 strategy to
the polls
By Daniel Weintraub
Sacramento Bee
December 16, 2007
Having won big or lost big at the ballot box almost every year since
he took office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to go back to the
voters again in 2008 with perhaps his most ambitious agenda yet,
even as the state's finances seem to be crumbling around him.
Schwarzenegger's high-risk strategy for the year ahead represents
a hybrid of the approaches that have worked for him and those that
have failed him, a mix of confrontation and collaboration that he
hopes will coax legislative leaders and interest groups into joining
him on the campaign trail.
So far, the governor is pushing a health care plan that would
require voter approval for new taxes, a big bond measure that could
reshape the state's water supply system and a political reform that
seeks to change the way California elects its legislators.
Schwarzenegger has long been a fan of direct democracy. In 2002,
as a private citizen and Hollywood megastar, he sponsored
Proposition 49, which set aside money in the state budget for
after-school programs. A year later, he was elected in an historic
recall election that ousted a sitting California governor for the
first time.
In 2004, his first year in office, Schwarzenegger put a fiscal
package on the ballot with bipartisan votes in the Legislature,
winning voter approval for a $15 billion deficit bond and a
companion measure that he sold as a balanced budget amendment.
He then used the momentum from that victory to pressure the
Legislature into overhauling the state system for compensating
workers who are injured on the job. Democrats at first resisted his
proposal but then agreed to a compromise after the governor and his
allies collected more than 1 million signatures and threatened to
place a measure of their own on the ballot.
Schwarzenegger concluded from that experience that he could win
policy victories in the Capitol by vowing to go directly to the
voters if the Legislature resisted his overtures. But a year later,
in 2005, the same approach failed miserably.
The governor pushed for new budget powers, changes in education
policy, limits on the use of union dues for political campaigning
and an independent commission to draw political districts. But after
Schwarzenegger called a special election, the Democrats and their
allies in the public employee unions spent more than $100 million to
campaign against his proposals. The voters rejected them all.
Schwarzenegger responded by resolving to work more closely with
the Legislature. The result in 2006 was a $37 billion package of
public works bonds to repair and build public schools, roads, levees
and housing. That deal helped Schwarzenegger demonstrate that he
could govern, and the voters embraced the package while reelecting
him to a second term.
Now Schwarzenegger is eyeing the ballot yet again. This time, it
is not clear whether he will have the kind of broad support that
existed for his infrastructure package in 2006 or the sort of bitter
opposition that blocked his measures in 2005. He will probably end
up somewhere in between.
His health care measure, if it makes it to the ballot, will
likely draw opposition from the tobacco industry, which would see
taxes on its products increased, from Blue Cross, the state's
largest health insurer, and from the California Nurses Association,
a union that prefers a government-run health care system. Business
groups would likely be split, with large firms that already insure
their workers supporting it and smaller companies opposed.
Schwarzenegger is still trying to work out a deal in the
Legislature to expand the state's water supply system and raise
money for repairs to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, through which
much of California's water travels as it moves from north to south.
To get that deal, he is threatening to support business and farm
interests that are pushing for more reservoirs and have drafted a
ballot measure to accomplish their goal.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, have joined with Senate leader Don
Perata to draft a competing measure they are threatening to put on
the ballot.
If both measures move forward, the voters could very well reject
them after a costly and confusing campaign. In a sense, then,
Schwarzenegger is using the business-backed measure as a threat not
because anyone thinks it will pass but because it would be an
effective tool to block the Democrats' plan.
Schwarzenegger has also endorsed an initiative drafted by
political reform groups, including California Common Cause, to take
the job of drawing district lines away from the Legislature. The
measure is similar to the one the governor backed unsuccessfully in
2005. While this one has broader support initially, it is unlikely
to pass without the backing of the Democratic Party, or at least the
leadership in the Legislature.
Schwarzenegger is still hoping to win such an endorsement or
persuade lawmakers to place a plan of their own on the ballot.
No matter how these battles turn out, it looks as if voters can
expect another busy year in the Capitol in 2008, and another big
bundle of measures on the ballot in February, June and November.
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