Changing Method Of Redistricting Makes Ballot

By John Wildermuth, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
June 18, 2008

An initiative to take redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature will be on the November ballot, backed by a couple of strange political bedfellows.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former state Controller Steve Westly, a Democrat who lost his primary bid to challenge Schwarzenegger in 2006, are co-chairs of the effort to change the way California draws most of its political boundaries.

Westly and Schwarzenegger also worked together in 2004 as co-chairs of the group backing Propositions 57 and 58, which were designed to ease the state's budget woes.

"This is not a Democratic or Republican initiative at all," said Jeannine English, state president of the AARP, one of the sponsors of the ballot measure. "We think this is fair and has broad-based support."

The initiative, which backers have dubbed the California Voters First Act, will create a 14-member redistricting commission with responsibility for drawing the boundaries for Assembly, state Senate and Board of Equalization districts after the 2010 census. The district boundaries must follow geographic, city and community lines and ignore partisan political considerations.

Eight commissioners would be selected by the state auditor's office in a random drawing of candidates selected by a review panel. Those eight would choose the other six members from the applicant pool.

Currently, the majority party in the Legislature draws the district boundaries after each census, with the governor having final approval. The last redistricting, which had the backing of both Republicans and Democrats, kept nearly all the incumbents in their seats and made it extremely difficult for the opposition party to win an election.

"Under the current system, the politicians pick their own voters instead of the voters picking their own representatives," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "The result of this is the partisan paralysis and gridlock that we see in Sacramento."

The state Democratic Party already has come out against the redistricting initiative, arguing that it would make it harder for blacks, Latinos and other minorities to get elected to office.

"This flawed initiative would greatly jeopardize minority representation in the California Legislature," Art Torres, the state party chair, said in a statement. "While California's redistricting process is in need of reform, this initiative is not the answer."

Westly isn't the only Democrat backing the initiative. Former Gov. Gray Davis has endorsed the redistricting plan, and groups including California Common Cause, AARP and the Southern California ACLU, which often support Democratic legislation, are behind the measure.

"Virtually the only opposition is coming from the leadership of the Democratic Party, which has been drawing the district lines," English said. "That's why about 99 percent of the incumbents get re-elected."

But while a number of reapportionment reform plans have made it to the California ballot in the past 30 years, none has passed. In 2005, voters overwhelmingly rejected Prop. 77, Schwarzenegger's attempt to put reapportionment in the hands of a panel of retired judges.

"We've learned from the mistakes of the past," English said. "We have an initiative that will truly meet the needs of the state and that will draw bipartisan support."

Backers of the measure ducked one potential problem by leaving congressional reapportionment out of the initiative and in the hands of the Legislature.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, and other Democratic congressional leaders argued that it would be unfair to give up their redistricting advantage while other, Republican-controlled states keep theirs. They also promised to raise millions to defeat any redistricting plan that included Congress.

"Having a successful campaign was important to us," English said, and a fight with a political powerhouse like Pelosi wouldn't have helped the effort.

Backers of the redistricting initiative collected more than 1.1 million signatures, far more than the 694,354 needed for the constitutional amendment. It is the 11th measure slated for the November ballot and probably the final citizen's initiative to qualify because there are no others that will meet the June 26 deadline.