Redistricting & Prop. 93 Roundup

Steve Lawrence’s AP report as it ran in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Mercury News:

“If we grant legislators what they want — longer terms — without getting redistricting reform, we will never get redistricting reform,” Poizner said.

Westly, chairman for outreach with the Proposition 93 campaign, also wishes the two subjects had been linked but said it would be a mistake to reject Proposition 93.

“A reasonable person would say this is a net improvement for California,” he said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took the same position in endorsing the proposition. He previously said he would not support a term-limits change unless it was linked toredistricting.

The ballot measure’s opponents claimed Schwarzenegger agreed to back Proposition 93 as a quid pro quo with Perata and Nunez — doing so in exchange for getting his $14 billion health care expansion bill through the Legislature.

Schwarzenegger said he endorsed the proposition on its merits and because he wanted to retain legislative leaders he had grown to trust.

Nunez blames overreaching by Republicans for lawmakers’ failure to agree on redistricting reform, but says legislators still should pursue it to avoid further loss of public confidence.

Bill Bradley said of Proposition 93 at New West Notes last week:

The other big problem is the failure to follow through on the promise Democratic legislative leaders have made every year since before they defeated Schwarzenegger’s redistricting reform initiative in 2005. Now, I happen to have a lot of reason to believe that right-wing Republicans aren’t serious about redistricting reform, either. But the commitment was made by the Democratic legislative leaders. They consistently failed to follow through, with Democratic votes, including an absurd escapade with a “missing” bill in 2006. That lost them a lot of editorial support and, more importantly, overall credibility.

The Ventura County Star weighed in on 93:

The initial plan was to pair redistricting reform with term-limits changes, which makes sense as voters might be inclined to loosen term-limit restrictions in exchange for district boundaries created by an independent panel. When Mr. Nuñez and Mr. Perata couldn’t swing redistricting reform, they continued to pursue loosening term limits. It makes more sense to tackle the issues together.

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