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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
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Walters: Voters Irate At Budget Posturing
By Dan Walters, Bee Columnist
Sacramento Bee
March 28, 2008
California Forward, the state's newest political reform group, chose
an apt moment to launch its ambitious crusade to overhaul a
dysfunctional state government – as the Capitol's politicians were
demonstrating anew their inability to confront the horrific budget
crisis and as a new poll was reflecting a rising level of disdain
for their antics among voters.
Were the Capitol a functional institution, its denizens would be
ardently exploring ways to close the state's growing budget deficit.
Instead, they have reverted to a dismally familiar pattern of
pointing fingers of blame, drawing lines in the ideological sand and
staging cheap media stunts.
Democrats have been staging phony "debates" on tax
increases and phony "hearings" on spending cuts.
Meanwhile, Republicans have been blasting away at the Democrats for
squandering years of revenue increases and ignoring their own role
of demanding unaffordable tax cuts. And both are paying the price in
declining public esteem.
A new statewide poll by the Public Policy Institute of California
(PPIC) found that approval ratings for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
and legislators of both parties have been dropping as fast as the
housing market, with the governor once again below 50 percent and
the Legislature an even more embarrassing 30 percent.
Californians expect better. The PPIC poll found that a strong
majority of Californians – over 80 percent – are worried about
the chronic deficit and Schwarzenegger's semi-serious proposals to
close it with sharp spending cuts, especially in schools. And while
Californians are more supportive of spending cuts than new taxes, 42
percent of them want to solve the problem with a combination of
reductions and new revenues.
That's a fairly strong vote of confidence, conceptually at least,
in the alternate budget that Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill has
proposed but that has received almost no outward support among her
employers, who have continued to cleave into two warring ideological
camps, neither of which is legally capable of passing a budget on
its own.
Nor is Schwarzenegger covering himself with glory as the budget
problem worsens. He offered up his cuts-only budget in January,
coupled with what he said would be long-term budget reform, but has
since been all over the map. One day he's being a tough guy on
spending, and the next he's saying he's open to closing tax
loopholes or extending the sales tax to services.
The net effect is to leave everyone confused on what he really
wants out of the budget this year – other than to have the problem
go away so that it won't plague his final years in office. But
that's not the kind of decisive leadership Californians expect from
their governor, as voters demonstrated in 2003 when they tossed out
Gray Davis because of his mishandling of the budget and elected
Schwarzenegger on his pledge to end "crazy deficit
spending."
It's this kind of endemic dysfunction that California Forward
wants to repair with a series of structural and systemic changes,
beginning with passage of a Schwarzenegger-backed ballot measure
that would overhaul the way legislative districts are drawn and,
presumably, bring more moderates and pragmatists into the Capitol.
"The mission is to make sure that governing in this town is
more important than winning," said California Forward
Co-Chairman Leon Panetta, a former congressman and White House chief
of staff. "This will be challenging. We don't underestimate the
challenges we face."
Nor should they, because the interests who prefer a dysfunctional
status quo are powerful and the problems, especially budget
problems, are growing more acute. No one would be surprised if the
projected deficit doesn't grow by another couple of billion dollars
as the economy continues to soften.
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