Better Lines, Better Representation

By William E. Saracino, Sac Union Columnist
Sacramento Union
October 24, 2008

Modern politics gives our citizens ample reasons to lose faith in their political system. Gerrymandered congressional and legislative districts, drawn to guarantee the victory of a particular party, are one of the main culprits. Voters rightly feel that they are powerless to change their representatives.

Californians have a chance to strike a blow for representative government and against self-dealing politicians by voting �yes� on Proposition 11 in November.

The Proposition

Proposition 11 would take the power to draw state legislative districts away from legislators and give it to a 14-member commission made up largely of average citizen, �Joe the Plumber� types. The proposition is far from perfect. The method by which members of the commission would be selected is convoluted. All of the commissioners would of course be subject to the full range of human foibles, so there is no guarantee that district lines drawn by them would be perfect in any instance or fair in all instances.

But nothing, literally nothing, could be worse than the current system. Letting legislators draw their own district lines is like letting high schoolers grade their own SAT answers or batters call balls and strikes during a baseball game. Such arrangements cannot possibly work. Current California district lines, a veritable shrine to dysfunctional government, are incontrovertible proof of this.

Current lines frustrate the will of the voters, making it virtually impossible to defeat an incumbent or change party representation. California has a total of 173 congressional and legislative districts. The 2006 election saw exactly one of those 173 districts change party hands.

Current lines give no regard to preserving �community of interest,� i.e. putting towns, cities and neighborhoods entirely in the same district when possible. Instead, small neighborhoods � even individual blocks � are split apart and put in different districts in order to achieve the desired partisan outcome.

Crazy-quilt district lines run back, forth and then back again to capture as many members as possible of one party or the other. California�s district lines looks like the results of an explosion in a spaghetti factory. Movie stars Bonzo and Cheeta working on Etch-a-Sketches would produce districts that are more logical. The current system is a festering sore on the body politic, infecting citizens with cynicism about their ability to make a difference on Election Day. Proposition 11, imperfect as it is, is our only chance to change that.

A Division over Divisions

This recommendation will be viewed as heresy by some of my fellow conservatives, as Proposition 11 is far from a unanimous choice on the right and in the GOP. Much of that suspicion comes from the measure�s sponsor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Conservatives have good reason to double and triple check for booby traps in any suggestion of the governor�s. But the �stopped clock� rule applies here, and the governor did a good thing in advancing Proposition 11. Conservatives need to look beyond the proposition�s parentage and at the measure�s merits.

Another conservative and Republican objection to the proposition concerns the membership of the commission that will draw new district lines. There are essentially no qualifications necessary for membership. Members of the commission will in essence be chosen at random, after some legislative pruning of the list, from a pool of everyone applying to be a commissioner.

Is this the ideal way to select citizens who will determine district lines? Certainly not. But I would remind my fellow conservatives of William F. Buckley Jr.�s quote, �I�d rather be governed by the first 100 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard.� Buckley was right. The first hundred names in those white pages would do a fairer, saner job of governing than the effete, inbred socialists on the faculty of �Haah-vad.�

Likewise, the first 100 names in any California phone book would do a fairer job of drawing district lines than incumbent legislators. The objective is pretty simple: to have district lines produce election results reflecting the will of the voters. Such lines would produce Republican legislative majorities in strong Republican years, Democrat majorities in strong Democrat years and split decisions in so-so years.

Time for a Change
This is not rocket science. We don�t need rocket scientists to achieve the goal, just honest line drawers. A 14-member commission made up of my gardener, your Pilates instructor and 12 latte-steamers chosen from random Starbucks would draw better, fairer and more competitive legislative district lines than we now have.

The current system of drawing legislative lines punishes voters of all parties and sucks the vitality out of the political system. Stop the madness. Vote �yes� on Proposition 11.

Editor�s Note: The Sacramento Union recommended Californians oppose Proposition 11 in its 2008 General Election Voter Guide. Nonetheless, arguments for and against this proposition (and others) will be entertained within this paper as it is important to encourage open discourse on the important concerns of our day.