Free Republic

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has run out of time in his bid to redraw California's legislative and congressional districts for the 2006 elections, even some supporters of his effort say. "The governor's office just dilly dallied around for too long," said Tony Quinn, a former adviser to Assembly Republicans on redistricting. "You can't do it when there's not enough time." The Republican governor is pushing both a legislative constitutional amendment and a ballot initiative that would take away the Legislature's power to draw the districts and give that duty to a panel of retired judges. Both measures would require...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will visit Common Cause in Washington Thursday to seek support for his plan to redraw political district lines. A vice president of the nonpartisan good government group said an endorsement was planned. The meeting comes as the Republican governor faces skepticism - including from GOP leaders - over his proposal to let a panel of retired judges redraw congressional and state legislative district boundaries in California as early as next year. That job is currently done by state lawmakers, and under the normal timeline it wouldn't happen until after the 2010 census. Schwarzenegger's press...

"Redistricting" isn't a word that easily flows off the tongue, nor is it normally part of the vocabulary of the average voter. But Californians are certain to hear and read it for at least the next few months as part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to reform the state government from the ground up. Redistricting is the process of changing the boundaries of the districts by which voters elect representatives to office. When it comes to the Assembly and Senate districts for the state Legislature, boundaries are drawn by the Legislature itself. In 2001, leaders of both the Democratic and...

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...

Conservative groups are out to take back California with two petitions demanding “fair districts” and a part-time legislature. All they need are signatures—more than 600,000 of them, per petition. Nevertheless, leaders of the most recent movement say they will succeed where several previous petition drives failed. Leading the group is Ted Costa, who said the group has 100,000 signatures for their redistricting initiative. Costa and his group, People’s Advocate, submitted paperwork for their petitions in October. Costa, a veteran of the gubernatorial recall, started accepting signatures after the Nov. 2 election. The petitioning group had previously submitted paperwork for the...

Though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once again used his political brawn to influence state ballot measures, even he could not alter California's legislative map during the recent election, according to a pair of independent pollsters who have been tracking California elections for decades. Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California and Mark DiCamillo of the Field Poll weighed in Tuesday on trends that emerged from the recent election, agreeing that the Republican governor had a dramatic effect on the outcome of some key ballot measures - particularly the last-minute plunge in support for Proposition 66's effort to soften California's...

It's the political season, but just try to find a real election race in California. The state with the most electoral votes seems wrapped up for Democrat John Kerry, despite his mushy-mouthed appearances every night on national TV. At any rate, he and President Bush aren't competing here. Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer is running comfortably ahead of Republican Bill Jones in an obscure matchup with neither candidate exciting voters. There are no statewide races in California during a presidential election, so that brings us down to low-profile U.S. House and state legislative contests. Put it this way: The chance...

Ted Costa, one of the orchestrators of California's successful recall election last fall, now wants to ask voters to knock the state Legislature down to part-time status. It is a notion that has circulated around the Capitol a lot lately and even has been mentioned by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the throes of his frustration with lawmakers during the state budget impasse. Costa is proposing a constitutional change to cut the legislative year by half, with lawmakers meeting for 90 days between January and the end of June. "The legislators (would) have more time to spend in their districts, and...