Posted on 02/24/2005 6:01:39 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that redrawing the state's legislative and congressional districts would break the hold of the political elite, but a leading Democrat labeled the proposal a Republican power grab.
Schwarzenegger is pushing a constitutional amendment that would transfer the Legislature's power to draw legislative and congressional districts to a panel of retired judges that would produce new districts for the 2006 elections.
Current districts, Schwarzenegger said, were drawn to maintain the partisan lineups that existed in the Legislature and congressional delegation following the 2000 federal census and few of them are competitive. Some look like they were drawn by "a drunk with an Etch A Sketch," he added.
"This is not democracy," he said at a conference on legislative reform. "It is a political elite building a fortress to keep themselves in and keep the people out."
He's threatened to call a special election later this year to enact his plan if it's rejected by the Democrat-dominated Legislature.
Assemblyman Tom Umberg, the chairman of the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee, agreed some districts were drawn "a bit uniquely," but he suggested the governor's plan was "sour grapes" because he wasn't able to defeat Democrats he campaigned against in the last election.
Umberg, D-Anaheim, said Democrats would oppose turning redistricting over to a panel of "retired judges appointed mostly by Republican governors" but that they might be open to some other kind of redistricting commission.
"I am interested in having a serious conversation about how we do (redistricting) in California," Umberg said. "Doing a mid-decade (redistricting) in order to create a partisan power grab is not the way to begin the discussion."
But Schwarzenegger likened waiting until after the next census in 2010 to redraw districts to a man with a broken arm waiting several months to see a doctor.
"We should fix the problem right now," he said. "Redistricting reform is long overdue. The people demand it and I will make it happen."
Umberg questioned doing redistricting next year without updated population figures and the wisdom of spending money on a special election when the state is battling billion-dollar budget deficits.
"When voters recognize that the governor is willing to spend up to $70 million to affect a partisan power grab, I think voters are going to be clearly opposed to it," Umberg said.
A Field Poll released Thursday found that voters narrowly support Schwarzenegger's redistricting plan, 48 percent to 40 percent, but strongly oppose holding a special election that would cost as much as $70 million.
Some election experts also question whether turning redistricting over to a panel of retired judges would produce many more competitive districts, because of a growing polarization of areas into heavily Democratic or Republican territory.
About a half dozen members of the California Nurses Association held up a banner saying "RNs say stop the power grab" as the Republican governor began his conference speech. They were ushered out by highway patrol officers and hotel security.
Charles Idelson, a spokesman for the association, said Schwarzenegger's redistricting proposal "looks increasingly like part of a hostile takeover of the democratic institutions of California."
About 50 members of the association held a rally across the street from the downtown hotel where Schwarzenegger spoke, protesting his suspension of stronger nurse staffing requirements at hospitals.
A system so calculated to protect politicians and deprive voters of choice is both corrupt and anti-democratic. It also distorts the politicians it protects, forcing them to appeal in the primary election to loyal hard-liners of their party rather than the possibly undecided and party-switching center. --Los Angeles Times 2-21-05
That is SHOCKING! I knew they drew "favorable" districts but this is beyond anything I could imagine (23 District).
"Schwarzenegger is pushing a constitutional amendment that would transfer the Legislature's power to draw legislative and congressional districts to a panel of retired judges that would produce new districts for the 2006 elections."
Yes, that's just what we need, more unelected judges making political decisions. We have had so much luck with that in the past.
(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")
I can't remember if you and I agree on this but I would like to see some type of redistricting for sure....I didn't even know about this ribbon of shame one......I know up here in Contra Costa, the districts look like a chimp throwing paint on a canvas made them up........
CA: (Field) Poll: Calif. voters oppose election plan (penny wise,pound foolish) ^
Hope so!
Please refresh my memory. Did the Dems call it a power grab when they drew the existing districts to benefit themselves?
plus.......what the hell does Monterey county have with Ventura and Oxnard......good grief.....Monterey and Salinas are actually more farmland where as southern cal is just, well it isn't coastal farmland that is for sure......
(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")
Well, they grabbed it fair and square. It's not fair if the Republicans try to grab it back. ;)
Thanks, that clears things up:)
Incredible
The judges would be from a pool of retired judges, It is one of the main areas of contention as to how you can guarantee impartiality .. and non partisan line drawing.
Ted Costa supports a 3 judge panel, arnold supports a 5 judge panel.
I support a random district generating computer program running on Linux, not Windows , myself. lol
Also, the practice of splitting large cities up into multiple districts is a bone of contention as well.
Lots of issues involved, but the alternative is do nothing and sink even faster.
al least the issue is finally getting outed bigtime, controversy or not.
I don't think we have any major disgreements.. I know concerns have been raised about us just replacing one version of gerrymandering with a more subtle form.
Doing nothing insures disaster into the foreseeable future.
which , if disaster equals bankruptcy, maybe that is what it will take to snap a lot of folks out of their myopic views of things here in this state.
fyi
Just view the world from the position of a two-year-old in a sandbox, and the entire Democrat platform starts to make perfect sense. ;)
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