Sounds like Schwarzenegger's plan is just as contrived as the one the legislature concocted. What is needed is districting laid out without political consideration and limited geographic considerations.
Please remember that up until WWII local considerations were paramount and each community needed representation to preserve its sovereignty and protect its interests. Today the state has removed most local autonomy and geographic considerations are not as important. Voters in Ukaiah and Los Angeles today have essentially the same responsibilities and could vote in the same district on state wide matters.
A system set up by computers in five minutes would probably change the make up of the legislature appreciably. More than half of the single issue, culturally or racially based ideologues would face defeat. Remember, California's problem is not too many Democrats but too many single issue, cultural/racial ideologues who can legislate personal favors for their monolithic constituents with impunity because they aren't subject to review.
No method of establishing political districts is going to reduce the power of liberals or organized labor or Mexicans in California politics and redistricting shouldn't be designed around those objective. Redistricting should be undertaken to eliminate the favorable treatment of any class at the expense of the others. We can't, for example, keep bankrupting scores of school districts around California to financially subsidized the failed Los Angeles Unified School District.