CA: Fight brews over redistricting

Sac Bee ^ | 11/11/04 | Margaret Talev

[NormsRevenge]

A chamber of commerce official who served on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition team and is legal counsel to the governor's wife is launching a campaign to take redistricting powers away from the Democratic-controlled Legislature. George Kieffer, chairman of the board of directors for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said the change could reduce polarization, improve California's business climate and better serve mainstream voters.

He said he will ask his board when it meets today to adopt a resolution supporting the idea. That could lay the groundwork for a ballot initiative campaign in 2006 - or earlier, if Schwarzenegger calls a special election to put before voters any of a variety of changes he is considering to the structure of state government and operations of the Legislature.

Kieffer said he also will ask his board today to formally support doing away with legislative term limits.

That idea is unpopular with voters and is one the governor has not discussed, but it is likely to draw support from the same Democratic incumbents who oppose the redistricting shift.

Lawmakers currently are elected from districts put in place in 2001 in a plan signed by former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. Those new maps resulted from an agreement between the Democrats in the Legislature who controlled the once-a-decade redistricting process and Republican leaders, one that largely preserved the partisan status quo.

Schwarzenegger for weeks has floated the idea of a midcensus redistricting to be done by a nonpartisan panel of retired judges.

--snip--

In a news conference Nov. 3, Schwarzenegger told reporters, "I think we have to do a redistricting. I think this is a very, very important thing that we have to make part of our reforms.

[AntiGuv]

I think all states should have an Iowa style nonpartisan redistricting. I don't support mid-census redistricting, though. The constitutionality of that is still pending with the Supreme Court, by the way.

[Carry_Okie]

George Kieffer, chairman of the board of directors for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said the change could reduce polarization, improve California's business climate and better serve mainstream voters.

Ted Costa already has such an effort underway. So who is this guy to set up his own, "parallel" effort?

Source

George David Kieffer is Government & Regulatory Partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.
Member of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Transition Committee.
Member, Board of Directors of the California Chamber of Commerce; Chair, Education Committee.
Member, Museum Council, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Chair, Mayor’s Los Angeles Economic Impact Task Force.
Chair, City of Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission.
Member, Board of Directors of the New Los Angeles Automotive Training Corporation.
Member, Board of Directors, and Executive Committee of the Central City Association of Los Angeles.
Former Member and Vice Chair, Board of Directors, Los Angeles Urban League.
Former Member, Board of Directors, Constitutional Rights Foundation.
Former Member and President, Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges.
Former Trustee and Chairman of the University of California at Santa Barbara Foundation.
Former Member, Board of Regents, University of California.
Former Member, Blue Ribbon Commission for the Review of the Master Plan for Higher Education of California.
Co-author, “Empower Voters, Not Parties,” The Riverside Press-Enterprise, Oct. 23, 2004.
Contributing Author, Governing Public Colleges & Universities, Jossey-Bass, c. 1993.
Author, “The Strategy of Meetings,” published by Simon & Schuster (hardback) and by Warner Books (paperback) 1988. The book has been published in five languages.
Named by California Law Business (published by the Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal) as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California for the year 2000.
Recipient, Social Responsibility Award, Los Angeles Urban League, October 1999.

Looks like a Dickie Riordan plant and "consensus" manipulator.

Soooo, why would some buddy of Arnold launch a parallel effort unless it was to water down what Costa was doing, ala workman's comp reform?

RINO alert.

[goldstategop]

I oppose doing away with term limits. I would rather have no redistricting than have Democratic leaders have a lifetime grip on legislative leadership positions.

[SierraWasp]

The Governor's "people" are working at cross purposes with the Conservative grass roots in CA. Tearing down term limits that gave Willie Brown a death grip and choke hold on the CA Assembly speakership is truly a prize that special interests deeply covet!!!

It comes under the heading of "stability" for lobbyists for every special interest group imaginable and concentrates inordinate power in Sacramento to facilitate corruption!!!

They know that just like the Recall that Costa helped get started, that they must supercede that effort with Arnold's media dominating celebrity, so that the special interests that Arnold now represents, instead of Gray Davis, wrest control from Costa and the riff-raff of Conservatism's grass roots.

Same song... Second verse... A little bit louder... And a whole lot worse!!! You can't ride in my "red" wagon... The wheel is broke and the axel's saggin... Same song... Third verse... (and so on, and so on!!!)

[SierraWasp]

"Tearing down term limits that gave Willie Brown a death grip"

Whoops! That should read... "Tearing down term limits that REMOVED Willie Brown's death grip"

[tubebender]

Author, “The Strategy of Meetings,” published by Simon & Schuster (hardback) and by Warner Books (paperback) 1988. The book has been published in five languages.

Has anyone read this book and what kind of mind control does it advocate?

[Carry_Okie]

Schwarzenegger for weeks has floated the idea of a midcensus redistricting to be done by a nonpartisan panel of retired judges.

'Nonpartisan judges'? Now THERE'S an oxymoron!

[Carry_Okie]

Has anyone read this book and what kind of mind control does it advocate?

It's still in print and there's one rave review at Amazon. I was unable to find a detailed review.

[farmfriend]

Personal list.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[Uncle Hal]

I question you can ever take politics out of redistricting. In the end, people do the choosing of districts and they always have political views and agendas.

[calcowgirl]

Arnold seems to spell his name "Keiffer" (on his website and as announced when he put Kieffer on the Transition Team).

California Bar Association Records:

George David Kieffer 
CA Bar Number:         57492 
Current Status:        Active 
CA Admission Date:     December 20, 1973 
District:              District 7 
County:                Los Angeles 
Address:               Manatt, Phelps Et Al
                       11355 W. Olympic Blvd
                       Los Angeles, CA 90064 
Phone Number:         (310)312-4146 
Undergraduate School:  Univ of California Santa Barbara; CA 
Law School:            UCLA SOL; Los Angeles CA 

Note: Manatt Phelps founder, Charles Manatt, former chairman of the DNC.
.

[Carry_Okie]

Note: Manatt Phelps founder, Charles Manatt, former chairman of the DNC.

Shocks the hell out of me.

[calcowgirl]

 

 

Contributor	Occupation	Date	Amount	Recipient
KIEFFER, GEORGE	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS LLP/ATTORN	9/7/01	$1,250	Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS LLP/ATTORN	4/30/02	$1,250	Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS/ATTORNEY	3/31/03	$500	Gephardt, Richard A
LOS ANGELES,CA 90049
KIEFFER, GEORGE	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS LLP	5/30/03	$500	Feinstein, Dianne
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS LLP/ATTORN	8/31/04	$1,800	Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS LLP	5/3/00	$1,116	Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS/ATTORNEY	9/10/04	$1,000	Lewis, Jerry
LOS ANGELES,CA 90049
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS	4/28/99	$912	Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS	6/27/03	$1,000	Shelby, Richard C
LOS ANGELES,CA 90049
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	MARCK AND COMPANY	4/29/04	$1,000	Boxer, Barbara
LOS ANGELES,CA 90049
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS LLP	12/31/01	$500	Bowles, Erskine B
LOS ANGELES,CA 90049
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID MR	MANATT PHELPS/ATTORNEY	2/22/00	$1,000	Gore, Al
LOS ANGELES,CA 90049
KIEFFER, GEORGE	MANATT PHELPS	6/28/96	$500	Torricelli, Robert G
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS	4/22/97	$1,401	Manatt, Phelps et al
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS	4/24/98	$1,053	Manatt, Phelps et al
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS ET AL	7/2/96	$500	Harman, Jane
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	MANATT PHELPS	1/19/96	$250	Wyden, Ron
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS	10/28/96	$250	Democratic Central Cmte of California
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE	MANATT, PHELPS	2/22/94	$250	Mahoney, Richard Doyle
LA,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS & PHILLIPS	5/27/93	$1,015	Manatt, Phelps et al
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	KANATT, PHELPS, PHIL	3/2/92	$1,000	Williamson, Richard S
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS	6/6/91	$1,000	Levine, Mel
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS, PHILLIPS & KANTOR	4/13/92	$832	Manatt, Phelps et al
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS, PHILLIPS & KANTOR	12/23/91	$750	Daschle, Tom
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT PHELPS & PHILLIPS	4/7/94	$700	Manatt, Phelps et al
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS, PHILLIPS & KANTOR	12/23/91	$466	Daschle, Tom
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS & PHILLIPS	5/9/91	$419	Manatt, Phelps et al
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS & PHILLIPS	11/18/91	$250	Hyatt, Joel
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS ET AL	3/4/92	$250	Harman, Jane
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS, PHILLIPS & KANTOR	4/1/92	$250	Becerra, Xavier
LA,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS, PHILLIPS, ET AL	10/31/91	$250	Wofford, Harris L
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	MANATT, PHELPS, PHILLIPS & KANTOR	1/28/92	$1,000	Clinton, Bill
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	ATTORNEY	8/27/91	$250	Boxer, Barbara
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	MANATT, PHELPS & PHILLIPS	7/14/93	$250	Becerra, Xavier
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE D	MANATT, PHELPS & PHILLIPS	8/13/90	$391	Manatt, Phelps et al
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064
KIEFFER, GEORGE DAVID	MANATT, PHELPS & ROTHSTEIN	8/24/90	$1,000	Cmte for Democratic Opportunity
LOS ANGELES,CA 90064

[calcowgirl]

>>Shocks the hell out of me.

Check out the contributions above. BTW, Manatt goes back to the Coelho fundraising days. Charming.

[StoneColdGOP]

[Carry_Okie]

The Knew Ma-whority.

[SierraWasp]

"Manatt goes back to the Coelho fundraising days."

And Coelho reminds us of Fort Worthless Jim Wright. And Coelho sits on the board of the "Great Valley Center" with the former County Supervisor that I once defeated, who is closely tied through his Demonicrat mother to Phil Angelides and the Demonicrat Developer Community that includes Angelo Tsecopholis(sp?) who slept in the Lincoln bedroom while Clinton ran for re-election in '96...

The former County Supervisor referred to above is immediate past President of the "Sierra-Nevada Alliance" and King of the American River commercial Whitewater Rafting corporations that support "Friends of the River" and the "Sierra Business Council" that convinced Arnold to do the hideous SIERRA-NEVADA CONSERVANCY to exclude ANY industry but Eco-Tourism!!! (Oh! And the MOVIE INDUSTRY which includes Schwarzenrenegger!)

It's not a conspiracy... It's just plain old orchestration! Just follow the lines of political/magnetical influence and follow the money!!!

[SierraWasp]

I always thought it was "The Gnu Ma-whority!"

You should be arrested and incarcerated for "word abuse!"(snort!)