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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
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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Walters: Two-party Structure
Under Fire
By Dan Walters, Bee Columnist
Sacramento Bee
January 18, 2008
Venerable institutions from department stores to news- papers have
been hammered by sweeping cultural and technological evolution.
California's two-party political system could become another victim.
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), confirming what
political insiders and analysts had already concluded, found that
the two major parties are rapidly losing ground among California
voters, especially younger voters, and forecast that by 2025
independent voters, already approaching 20 percent of the
electorate, could outnumber those of either party.
"We are an institution in transition, as are
newspapers," the long-serving chairman of the state Democratic
Party, Art Torres, acknowledged Thursday during a seminar at which
the PPIC study was unveiled.
The PPIC study found that as the number of registered voters grew
from 15.5 million to 15.7 million between 2000 and 2007, those
registered as Democrats or Republicans shrank from 12.6 million to
11.8 million as the ranks of independents – younger,
technologically oriented and suspicious of institutions – swelled.
PPIC's president, Mark Baldassare, noted that as the parties
shrink, they have become more ideologically focused – more liberal
on the Democratic side and more conservative in the GOP – and
while that polarization is reflected in the Legislature, thanks to
the closed primary system, it shuts out the more centrist
independents.
"We're speaking to two different electorates,"
Baldassare said, citing polls showing wide gulfs between partisan
voters ranging from taxes to abortion and the Iraq war.
The shrinkage of the two major parties is, unto itself, both
logical and, perhaps, healthy. It's simply inconceivable that the
incredible cultural, economic and even geographic diversity of 38
million Californians could be stuffed into two parties.
The downside is that the two parties hold a monopoly on
legislative seats – and have reinforced that with a bipartisan
gerrymander of legislative districts and a successful court battle
to outlaw a blanket primary system. Simply put, the most
conservative Republican voters and the most liberal Democrats
control the election of legislators, and thus their polarization
transfers itself into the Capitol. Moderates in either party, not to
mention independents, are effectively disenfranchised.
That doesn't necessarily hold true in statewide elections, where
the growing ranks of independents can and often do constitute the
margin of victory. They have leaned Democratic in most recent
elections, but not always, as the election and re-election of Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, a moderate-to-liberal Republican, indicate.
That phenomenon, in turn, bolsters a semi-permanent gridlock on
major policy issues in the Legislature with centrist governors
finding themselves trapped in no man's land as ideologues in both
parties engage in trench warfare. What's happened to Schwarzenegger
on the budget and other issues mirrors, in the broadest sense, what
happened to his recalled predecessor, Democrat Gray Davis.
Davis tried to steer down the middle of the road, albeit somewhat
passively, but when his popularity faded due to energy and budget
crises, he caved in to liberal demands. That undermined his standing
with mostly moderate voters even more – with driver's licenses for
illegal immigrants being the prime example.
Until and unless one of the parties moves toward the middle and
begins attracting the disaffected voters now opting for independent
status, and/or structural changes are made in the electoral system,
such as redistricting reform and more open primaries, or third
parties take hold, this syndrome is likely to continue and
Californians will, therefore, continue to see divided and gridlocked
government.
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