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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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Lawmakers Believe
In Terms Limits But Oppose The Measure
By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
North County Times
February 4, 2008
Curiously, politics enters into their thinking on Prop. 93
Proposition 93, a measure on Tuesday's ballot that would impose
new term limits on state lawmakers, could benefit most local
representatives, but most say they oppose it.
Lawmakers in the San Diego region's all-Republican delegation say
the proposal was written by a handful of Democrats and is designed
to keep key leaders, such as Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata,
D-Oakland, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, in
office.
"We took what could be a good discussion (about term limits)
... and we made it about incumbents," said Assemblyman Kevin
Jeffries, R-Murrieta, whose district includes parts of Southwest
Riverside County and inland North County.
Jeffries, a freshman assemblyman elected two years ago, said he
supports term limits and might consider going along with a plan that
does not grandfather incumbents extending their terms in office, but
he opposes Prop. 93.
Supporters say the plan allows lawmakers to gain more experience in
one house rather than rotating seats in Sacramento under the current
term limits system, created under Proposition 140 in 1990.
According to a previous position paper by the League of Women
Voters, in 1990, California voters approved Prop. 140, a
constitutional amendment that limited the number of terms an elected
state official could serve in the same office. As for the
Legislature, Prop. 140 limited members of the Assembly to three
two-year terms and members of the Senate to two four-year terms. A
legislator who has served his or her maximum number of terms in an
office is considered "termed-out" and is ineligible for
re-election.
A legislator who has "termed out" in the Assembly can then
run for Senate in his or her district of residence.
"Since the original law passed, California's got the most
strict term limits in the country," said Richard Stapler, a
spokesman for the "yes" on Prop. 93 campaign.
Stapler said the measure also had to include a transition period for
incumbent lawmakers to avoid constitutional problems.
Opponents cast the proposition as a deceptive proposal that would
result in more terms for the majority of legislators.
"This whole thing is rigged in a way to give 60 percent of
incumbent senators 18 years in the Senate," said Kevin Spillane,
a spokesman for the "no" on Prop. 93 campaign.
The measure would cut two years off the maximum time future
lawmakers and most current legislators could serve, dropping it from
14 years to 12.
But it would let them spend all 12 years in one house of the
Legislature.
It also includes a transition phase that would permit about a third
of sitting lawmakers to serve more than 14 years. That's because
only the time legislators have served in their current houses would
count if Prop. 93 passes.
The initiative also would allow 34 lawmakers who are scheduled to be
termed out of the Assembly or Senate this fall to stay in those
houses for another four or six years, assuming they win re-election.
Among those who would benefit would be Sen. Jim Battin, R-Moreno
Valley, and Assemblyman George Plescia, R-San Diego, both of whom
would be termed out of office this year if Prop. 93 fails. Battin
supports the measure, his press secretary said.
In a recently published Op-Ed piece, Plescia said he supported the
measure because longer terms would allow lawmakers to gain
experience to better address the state's problems, such as health
care, transportation and education.
Battin, who spent six years in the Assembly and is in his sixth year
in the Senate, would be allowed to serve six more years in the
Senate, giving him a total of 18 years, said Sasha Horowitz, who
authored a study on the effects of Prop. 93 for the Los
Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies.
Battin and Plescia could not be reached for comment.
Under the measure, 25 of the 40 state senators would be allowed to
serve a total of 18 years, according to the center's analysis.
Nine senators would be allowed to serve a total of 16 years. Four
senators could serve 14 years.
Three Assembly members could serve more than 14 years, according to
the study.
Most area lawmakers said they would like term limits reform like the
one that is in the measure, but many said they don't like extending
terms for incumbents.
Sens. Dennis Hollingsworth; R-Murrieta, Mark Wyland, R-Carlsbad, and
Assemblywoman Mimi Walters, R-Oceanside, would be termed out in 2010
without Prop. 93. Hollingsworth and Walters oppose the measure.
"I think term limits is a good idea," Hollingsworth said,
but he added that giving incumbents more time in office is
"self-serving."
Freshman Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, said he opposes
the proposition in part because he would have preferred that term
limits reform was accompanied with redistricting.
"We would like to have fair, redrawn districts," Garrick
said.
Two years ago, lawmakers had hoped to link term limits reform, which
Democrats wanted, to redistricting, which Republicans wanted. But
Democrats, who control the Legislature, dropped the efforts to
include redistricting.
The state Republican Party's chairman, Ron Nehring, issued a
statement last month opposing the measure, saying the GOP wants
"competitive districts and legislators frequently returning to
the private sector to live under the laws they impose on their
fellow Californians."
But some Republicans have broken rank with the party, including Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has said that he wanted to retain
legislative leaders he had grown to trust.
Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies
at Sacramento State University, said there is good and bad in the
measure. Whether one supports or opposes the measure depends on
whether the good outweighs the bad, he said.
Hodson said he believes the measure would help create stability in
the Legislature.
"The bottom line is, with the current system, a third of the
Legislature is new every two years," Hodson said. "You
can't run a Burger King that way."
Others, such as Sen. Wyland, disagree. He said government can be
improved by redistricting reform that creates more competitive
districts and term limits reform that doesn't include current
lawmakers.
"Everyone has to make their own choices," Wyland said.
Supporters of the measure, such as Sen. Battin, are "capable
and the people would be well served if they could continue in
office. For me, the larger issue is governance, democracy and the
state."
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