Free Republic

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Common Cause and two other political reform groups on Wednesday endorsed Proposition 77, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to take the power to draw legislative and congressional districts away from the Legislature. "The current system, where self-interested politicians are responsible for drawing political boundaries, is rotten to the core," said Chellie Pingree, national president of Washington, D.C.-based Common Cause. "It's time to get the fox out of the henhouse and to put an end to California's rigged system of elections." Proposition 77, one of eight measures on California's Nov. 8 special election ballot, would give the power to...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A business group raising money to back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's package of constitutional amendments for an upcoming special election has sued to overturn a cap on contributions to committees controlled by elected officials. The suit, served Wednesday on the California Fair Political Practices Commission, targets a regulation that officials from the Citizens to Save California and the governor's office have said does not apply to them because Schwarzenegger does not play a controlling role in the group. Critics have charged that Citizens to Save California is violating the regulation by raising unlimited amounts of money for campaign...