Recently the North County Times has come out in favor of redistricting reform in California via proposition 11. The paper suggests partisan redistricting is responsible for the budget mess that California has every year.
In California, that power now rests with the Legislature, which has used it as a tool to ensure its members’ own re-election by creating mostly “safe” districts at both the legislative and congressional levels. “Safe” in terms of their political party has an overwhelming edge in voter registration in that area.
The lack of true redistricting in both 1991 and 2001 has given Sacramento its current partisan budget gridlock, which is exemplified by the fact we are more than three weeks into California’s new fiscal year and are without a spending plan (see box below).
You can find previous Rose Report coverage of editorials and opinion pieces here and here.
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