CA: Arnold banking on pseudo-convention

Oakland Tribune ^ | 1/12/05 | Steve Geissinger

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is essentially staging the first constitutional convention in 126 years with a special election to revamp the jumbled California Constitution his way.

He is sidestepping political risks and safeguards in the most powerful emergency outlet Founding Fathers left for sweeping reform, analysts said Tuesday.

But the path he's chosen around a convention is still opening what analysts and others called a Pandora's boxGovernor sidestepping constitutional reform tool

that could backfire on the Republican governor. His critics — ranging from majority Democrats to wide-ranging special interests to conservative GOP groups — are scrambling to put their own varied measures on the ballot.

"This special election is a constitutional convention without delegates, a shortcut version," said Barbara O'Connor of the Center for the Study of Politics in Sacramento. "And you can't control what other initiatives qualify."

Schwarzenegger insists a spending-control measure, a public-employee pension overhaul and paying teachers on merit are among major solutions for ending deficit woes linked to fixed-funding formulas and other provisions that voters — guided by special interests — have put in the constitution piecemeal.

"The broken system" is so "crazy" and has resulted in such "madness" and "lunacy" that he'll call a special election, with or without the help of the Legislature, Schwarzenegger said.

Legal experts agree in numerous reports: The California Constitution has been amended so much — more than 400 times in a century — that it's dysfunctional by most measures.

"It is stupefyingly detailed — everything from art galleries to burial plots to fishing nets to parking lots is mentioned," wrote Larry Arnn after serving on the mid-1990s Constitution Revision Commission. "It is not, in a sense, a constitution at all."

But there's too much at stake politically to really put power in the hands of citizens with a constitutional convention as other states do and have done, analysts said.

"The political actors — the Legislature and the governor — would lose control if they handed it over to a convention," said Bruce Cain, director of the University of California, Berkeley governmental studies institute.

Under the California Constitution, the Legislature by two-thirds vote can place the question of whether to call a constitutional revision convention before voters. If approved, delegates elected from throughout the state would meet and forge proposals that are put to a statewide vote.

Though the constitution provides for constitutional conventions, there have been only two in California's history: the first to forge the original constitution in 1849 as the region sought statehood and a second convention to expand the document in 1879.

The next additions to the constitution came when reformer Hiram Johnson was elected governor in 1910. He led successful fights for, among other things, creation of the ballot initiative, referendum and recall laws.

Since 1911, when voters embraced the concept of the popular initiative, Californians have approved more than 425 amendments to the constitution, according to state records.

To sidestep continuing pressure for a convention, lawmakers won voter approval in 1962 of a measure that allowed them to submit their own proposed constitutional revisions to the electorate — a power they've used repeatedly. And no governors have used the initiative process more effectively and popularly than Schwarzenegger.

"But this is fake populism because of how the governor is running this pseudo-constitutional convention," said David McCuan, a political science professor at California State University, Sonoma.

"Calling on people to cast out the special interests is a compelling and very popular message but one with little bite when solving California's profound governance problems," McCuan said. "It's good theater, which makes for good politics, but carries with it a host of unintended consequences."

Democrats, for instance, want to put before voters measures passed by the Legislature but vetoed by Schwarzenegger — everything from a car buyers' bill of rights to a higher minimum wage to mechanisms for buying cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

Special interests' measures include one aimed at making the Legislature part time.

If you're the education lobby, why seek negotiations? Run to the ballot.

If you're the unions, why seek negotiations? Run to the ballot.

Rounding out the governor's plan for the special election is a measure that would deprive lawmakers of the ability to redistrict and perhaps break the Democrats' hold on the Legislature. Not surprisingly, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, doesn't agree.

Schwarzenegger's redistricting plan "just makes no sense to me," he said. "It doesn't fit in there. It's like, 'What's wrong with this picture?'"

[NormsRevenge]

But the path he's chosen around a convention is still opening what analysts and others called a Pandora's box Governor sidestepping constitutional reform tool that could backfire on the Republican governor. His critics — ranging from majority Democrats to wide-ranging special interests to conservative GOP groups — are scrambling to put their own varied measures on the ballot.
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The above is how that 3rd and 4th lines were supposed to read.

[EagleUSA]

Like him or not, HE HAS THE SLIMEY LIBERALS RUNNING LIKE COCKROACHES FROM THE LIGHT!!!!

[azcap]

You have to hand it to Austrian politicians. Get elected and if the structure of the government doesn't work for you just change it to something that suits you better. - Seriously though, anything that shakes up the Rat control in that state can't be bad.