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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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Good Intentions Could Harm Redistricting Ballot
Measure
By George Skelton, columnist
Los Angeles Times
April 28, 2008
SACRAMENTO —
It's now practically certain: There'll be a measure on the November
ballot to finally quash the Legislature's self-destructive system of
gerrymandering.
What's uncertain is whether there'll also be a rival measure
placed on the ballot by the Legislature.
This is a much-needed reform that could wind up being loved to death
by too many smothering embraces.
And it's an excellent example of the need for another reform: a fix
of the initiative system.
We should bring back the "indirect initiative" --
foolishly jettisoned in the mid-1960s -- that allowed the
Legislature and governor to tinker with a citizens' initiative
before it went on the ballot. Sponsors could accept or reject the
lawmakers' amendments. If accepted, the result presumably would be
an improved product, the avoidance of campaign bloodletting and
resolution of a state problem.
The problem here is infamous gerrymandering, which rigs elections to
favor the party that already holds a given legislative seat. In
California, that's usually the Democratic Party. Legislators, in
effect, choose their own voters rather than the voters getting a
fair crack at choosing them.
Never thought I'd hear a legislative leader acknowledge it --
Democrat or Republican -- but Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines of
Clovis lamented to me last week that gerrymandering results in the
election of ideologue extremists.
Because the Legislature draws districts so they're lopsidedly either
Democratic or Republican and aren't competitive in November, most
elections actually are decided in the party primary. Almost always,
the most true-blue Democrat and red-glowing Republican are
nominated. That makes for unyielding party partisanship.
"You have real liberal and very conservative people getting
elected and nothing gets done [in Sacramento]," Villines says.
"We should slug it out in the primary -- and slug it out in the
general.
"Citizens should draw the maps with no politicians'
involvement. It's an inherent conflict of interest. I'm serious
about it."
For nearly three years, Democratic legislative leaders have promised
straight-faced to produce a reform plan that stripped away the
lawmakers' power to draw their own districts. They've pledged to
turn the chore over to an independent citizens' commission. And
they've reneged.
This taxed the patience of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some
good-government groups: Common Cause, AARP, the League of Women
Voters and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. They took
matters into their own hands and united behind an initiative to
create a 14-citizen redistricting commission.
The proposal also has been endorsed by a new reform outfit,
California Forward, co-chaired by former White House Chief of Staff
Leon Panetta and Thomas V. McKernan, chief executive of the
Automobile Club of Southern California.
Schwarzenegger donated $550,000 of his political money to the
signature-collecting effort. About 700,000 voter signatures are
needed -- 1.1 million to be safe -- and they're expected to be
turned in to county registrars within a week or two. Once they're
validated and the secretary of state certifies the initiative for
the ballot, it's there for good. There's no taking the measure off
the ballot.
It has been speculated that the initiative sponsors might hold back
the signatures while assessing the seriousness of recent rumblings
of another legislative effort at reform. Maybe they could compromise
on a single measure, it's theorized. Forget it. The good-government
groups have heard it all before.
"The chances of that happening are between slim and none, with
the emphasis on none," says Steve Smith, a political consultant
for the initiative group.
Outgoing Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) unnerved
skeptical reformers recently when he told The Times that he plans to
propose a sweeping legislative package that would alter
redistricting, term limits and campaign fundraising.
Nuñez would create a 17-member independent redistricting
commission: nine members screened by judges and chosen by the
governor, eight selected by legislative leaders. He calls it a
"hybrid" commission designed "to provide checks and
balances" against partisan favoritism.
The term limit change -- allowing a total 12 years in either house
-- would be similar to the Nuñez proposal rejected by voters in
February, except there wouldn't be any sweetheart bonus time for
incumbents. The fundraising change would bar legislators from
hitting up special interests during hectic legislative periods, such
as when the budget is being negotiated.
"You look at the schedule of bill deadlines and you find
committee chairmen holding [fundraising] events the same week,"
Villines says. "I'm not saying anyone is doing a quid pro quo.
But it just looks bad and gives the wrong perception. Common sense
says it shouldn't be done."
If you get the impression that Republican Villines is cheering on
Democrat Nuñez, you're correct. Nuñez is catching the heat --
accused by reformers of lobbing a grenade in front of their swiftly
moving redistricting initiative -- but Villines is the speaker's
silent partner.
Why doesn't Villines just endorse the initiative being pushed by
Schwarzenegger and the outsiders? "We've got to do it on the
inside and show some courage," he answers. "We in the
Legislature shouldn't abdicate issues."
But Villines also has another motive: He thinks if legislators can
start cooperating on political reform, they might come together on
more issues, such as the water development that he and other Central
Valley legislators covet.
"It's not a strategy for leverage," he insists, not
entirely convincingly. "But we need to break though this
partisanship and get into a cooperative environment."
Nuñez told me he's "not enthusiastic about mortgaging
California's future" by borrowing billions for water
facilities. "More bonds? We can't even pay the bills right
now."
As for the redistricting initiative, "it's very bad -- very bad
-- for Democrats," he claims.
An assessment by Democratic map-drawers contends that the party
could lose up to 10 Assembly seats.
Nonsense, say the initiative sponsors.
Nuñez's message: There'll likely be Democratic opposition,
regardless of whether the Legislature passes a rival measure.
Fortunately, the reform groups aren't wincing. They're plowing
straight ahead.
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