John Wildermuth: Democrats Fear Redistricting Measure Would Curb Their Power In State

San Francisco Chronicle
June 27, 2008

California Democrats have been quick to criticize the latest effort to change Legislative districts -- Proposition 11 on the November ballot -- as unfair to minority groups throughout the state.

But not surprisingly, and much more quietly, they're even more concerned about the effect a non-partisan reapportionment effort could have on their favorite majority groups -- the Democrats who now control the state Assembly and Senate.

State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, invited Democratic leaders and their allies to a meeting in Sacramento this morning ''to discuss campaign strategy and organization'' for the attempt to beat back the effort to take the decennial redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and give it to a non-political citizens committee.

''The latest Republican attempt to take control over redistricting away from Democrats has now qualified for the November ballot,'' Perata said. ''Proponents know this represents their last best chance to prevent us from protecting and expanding our majorities in the Legislature in the decade to come.''

Many voters, including plenty of Democrats, might not think the purpose of redistricting, which redraws political boundary lines to comply with the population changes found in each census, is to give the party in power a chance to stick it to their political foes by gerrymandering districts to give them a partisan advantage.

Three years ago, when Perata urged voters to reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting plan in the special election (they did), he promised to ''fashion a bipartisan solution in a thoughtful way'' and put it on the ballot.

But then was then and now is now and Perata is worried that the current redistricting crowd will do anything to win.

''They are highly motivated,'' he said in the e-mail. ''And they've already given their proposal the patina of good-government reform. ''That ''patina'' would be the endorsement of Prop. 11 by non-partisan groups such as the League of Women Voters, Common Cause and AARP.

While Schwarzenegger is leading the charge for the measure, it also has the backing of former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and former state Controller Steve Westly, who ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006.

It's no news that redistricting is a political battleground, because it can decide which party holds the upper hand in California for the next 10 years.

One reason that Prop. 11 doesn't include Congressional boundaries in most of its new rules is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic allies refused to give up their partisan advantage in California unless other, Republican-controlled, states did the same thing.

But voters, especially in a place where decline-to-state voters are the fastest-growing part of the electorate, don't necessarily see a problem with a redistricting plan that keeps politicians from drawing the lines for their own districts and promises to avoid the partisan gerrymandering that splits cities, counties and communities in an effort to keep one party in power.

It would be refreshing to hear Perata's concern that the new redistricting plan will keep Democrats ''from protecting and expanding our majorities in the Legislature,'' show up in a campaign ad this fall, so voters could see what many of Prop. 11 opponents believe the stakes really are.

That's not going to happen. Instead, the ads are going to center around the much gentler -- and far less partisan -- concerns that Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party, expressed when Prop. 11 qualified for the ballot earlier this month.

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

Of course, Perata's missive to his allies never said a word about minority representation. Instead, it ended with a reminder that California Democrats have never been much in favor of changing a system that works for them.

''We're all veterans of this fight,'' he said. ''And we can win again.''