Proposition 11: Supporters See Redistricting As End To Gridlock

By Juliet Williams, Associated Press
Ventura County Star
Sunday, October 19, 2008

SACRAMENTO � Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had hoped to "blow up the boxes" of state government and end the partisan political gridlock that makes it so tough for California's Legislature to compromise. Instead, he says that system continues to be a roadblock to many of the reforms he seeks.

So Schwarzenegger is again turning to voters, hoping his latest effort to persuade them to redraw the state's gerrymandered legislative districts will be a winner. He has tried and failed twice � once with a bill in the state Legislature and once at the ballot in 2005.

Proposition 11 on the Nov. 4 general election ballot would take away the Legislature's power to draw state Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization districts and give it to a 14-member independent commission.

Anyone who has been an elected official, a lobbyist, a staff member or a family relation of an elected official or political party, among others, would be banned from serving on the commission for at least 10 years.

It has won support from an unlikely coalition of groups, including Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, the AARP, the ACLU of Southern California and the state conference of the NAACP. It also has won endorsements from scores of newspaper editorial boards.

Opponents say the initiative has garnered broad support because it was watered down. It does not include congressional districts, for example.

Democrats, led by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, are the main opponents, arguing that the effort is a Republican power grab, even though it is supported by members of both parties and by groups that often have different interests.

Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican, is the campaign's co-chairman, along with former state Controller Steve Westly, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2006. Schwarzenegger and his campaign committee spent nearly $2.5 million to get it on the ballot.

Politically, the timing couldn't be better. Schwarzenegger is hoping this summer's recordlong budget stalemate will persuade voters who are frustrated with Sacramento's gridlock. After months of bickering, lawmakers eventually compromised on a budget that satisfied no one.

After signing the budget, Schwarzenegger seized the opportunity by heading straight to a rally for Proposition 11 on the steps of the Capitol. He noted that during the last 314 California legislative and congressional elections, just one seat changed party hands.

"This is a fixed system, a system that rewards legislators for rigid partisanship and a system that punishes legislators for wanting to come in the middle and to go for compromise," Schwarzenegger said.

He has argued that districts providing safe havens for the incumbent party tend to produce candidates who are ultraconservative or ultraliberal, meaning few moderates are sent to Sacramento.

Leon Panetta, a former Democratic congressman and chief of staff to President Clinton, said this year's budget stalemate and the record-low public approval ratings for the state Legislature should make redistricting more attractive than ever.

"They've created safe districts, safe Democratic districts and safe Republican districts, and members feel like no matter what they do up there, no matter how irresponsible they may be, they're still going to get elected," Panetta said. "We've got to get government to govern more from the center than from the extreme."

But a mid-September poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found one in three voters still undecided on Proposition 11. Just 38 percent of likely voters supported it, with 33 percent opposed.

The measure sets up a complicated public application process in which state auditors, legislative leaders and, eventually, fellow commission members would winnow applications from a public pool. The panel would redraw the districts every 10 years, following the U.S. census.

Critics say it does not ensure that California's districts will represent their geographic or cultural communities.

"There's nothing to say this panel will look anything like California," said Paul Hefner, a spokesman for the No on 11 campaign.

Rather than remove political influence from the process, he said, Proposition 11 only obscures it by creating the impression that members would be nonpartisan.

Even some longtime redistricting supporters oppose the November initiative, such as political activist Ted Costa, the lead author of Proposition 77, the failed 2005 initiative that would have placed a panel of three retired judges in charge of drawing the districts.

He said loopholes in Proposition 11 would allow the Legislature to change the commission's makeup and powerful interest groups such as public employee unions could exploit the open application process to recruit ringers to serve on it.

It's not clear Proposition 11 would automatically lead to the reforms Schwarzenegger envisions.

A recent Public Policy Institute of California analysis questions the basic assumption behind redistricting reform: that districts composed of politically moderate voters would lead to an increase in electing moderate politicians. Researchers found little evidence that partisan districts created in 2001 led to more partisan voting in subsequent years.