Initiative On Redistricting Closer To Ballot

By Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Sacramento -- Supporters of a ballot initiative to change how legislative district lines in California are drawn submitted an estimated 1.2 million signatures to county election offices Tuesday in an effort to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

The plan, backed by a coalition that includes California Common Cause, AARP and the League of Women Voters as well as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, would create a 14-member commission to draw lines for state Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization districts.

The commission would be drawn from people who apply to the state auditor, an appointed official who would narrow the list to 60 candidates. Each of the four legislative leaders, two Democrats and two Republicans, could bounce as many as six names from the list.

Eight commissioners would then be drawn at random from the remaining pool, and those eight would select six more members to fill out the panel.

The initiative's proponents argue the current system of state lawmakers drawing district lines represents a conflict of interest. Chief among those proponents is Schwarzenegger, who has contributed $2.5 million from his own political funds to the initiative - more than half the $4.4 million that the campaign has received.

Other big donors include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($250,000), Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings ($287,116), and New Majority California, a business lobbying group in Orange County ($237,500).

The initiative also has garnered support from the left side of the political spectrum, including the California Democratic Council, an association of local party clubs and committees, and former Gov. Gray Davis, who stood alongside Schwarzenegger at a news conference outside the Los Angeles County registrar's office Tuesday to push the plan.

The measure needs 694,354 signatures to qualify for the November ballot. It probably will be weeks before county and state election officials verify the petitions.

Meanwhile, outgoing Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, announced his own redistricting plan Tuesday that would create a 17-member redistricting commission. Nine members would be chosen randomly from a pool of nominees selected by retired judges and the governor, and the other eight would be picked directly by legislative leaders.

Núñez said changes in term limits would be part of his plan, which would need two-thirds approval by both legislative houses to make it onto the November ballot. His measure would also ban political fundraisers for the governor and legislators after May 15 and until a state budget is enacted. The constitutional deadline for a budget to be enacted is June 30, but governors and lawmakers have seldom met that requirement.

The proposals "are a work in progress. There's still a lot of negotiating to be done with my Republican colleagues in the Assembly, Republican colleagues in the Senate and my Democratic colleagues in the Senate," said Núñez, who will be termed out at the end of the year and will give up his speakership next week.

Proponents of the redistricting ballot initiative wondered at the timing of Núñez's announcement.

"Núñez's proposal is politics as usual, the timing of it and the content of it," said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause.

Feng also criticized Núñez for tying redistricting reform to changes in term limits.

Currently, lawmakers can serve eight years in the Senate and six years in the Assembly. Núñez was the leading proponent of Proposition 93, a measure that voters rejected in February that would have lowered the total number to 12 years but allowed legislators to serve the entire time in one house. It would also have allowed lawmakers facing term limits this year, such as Núñez, to keep their jobs longer.

Núñez's latest proposal includes the 12-year limit for service in one house, but would apply it only to lawmakers elected after this year. Current members would still be bound by the existing term limits.