Category Archives: Redistricting

Redistricting Roundup: New Prop. 93 Editorials UPDATEDx2

The Vallejo Times-Herald editorial for Proposition 93: And, Prop 93 doesn’t do anything to address the bone of contention that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger deems the biggest evil of state politics – political entrenchment through redistricting.But all flaws cannot be addressed in one measure, and the earliest redistricting can occur is after the 2010 census anyway.… Continue Reading

Governor Kicks off Redistricting Reform Campaign

As Bill Bradley’s New West Notes noted last week: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political committee, the California Dream Team — formerly the California Recovery Team, and maybe the old name should be brought back — today instigated the signature gathering portion of a proposed redistricting reform initiative for the November ballot. Spokeswoman Julie Soderlund says the… Continue Reading

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… Continue Reading

A Centrist’s POV

Paul Silver of the Moderate Voice mentioned us last week: California and Arizona are both preparing to vote on redistricting plans aiming to reduce political distortions. The California version focuses on trying to keep cities and counties contiguous, rather than broken up into obscure gerrymandered shapes. Perhaps these new districts can be made more competitive… Continue Reading

Nunez to support Redistricting Measure?

As we’ve mentioned, many people have suggested that the Speaker may endorse the Voters FIRST redistricting reform measure now that the Governor has come out for Proposition 93. As Steve Maviglio said in the recent past: “[t]he Speaker has not said he is opposed to it; he said there’s problems with it.” I missed this… Continue Reading

Redistricting Roundup

From Monday’s Los Angeles Times endorsement of Proposition 93: …we were hoping for something better. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) at least implied that they would join term-limits reform with a measure they don’t like, but that is even more crucial to correcting the state’s broken… Continue Reading

Welch on Governor Schwarzenegger

Reason’s Matt Welch blogs on the Governor’s recent remarks on term limits, etc.: Arnold has tried and tried to push through much-needed redistricting reforms, but has gotten nowhere. He tied it up with extending term limits in order to finally make it palatable to legislators, but even that fell through. Well, at least the governor… Continue Reading

Common Cause and Proposition 93 UPDATEDx2

Last Friday, Shane Goldmacher of Capitol Alert reported that Common Cause, one of the sponsors of the Voters FIRST redistricting initiative the Governor has decided to support, has announced it will support Proposition 93. (See also the California Progress Report, the California Majority Report, and Steve Lawrence’s AP report in the San Diego Union Tribune,… Continue Reading

Redistricting Roundup

Redistricting and Prop. 93 come up in Kai Stinchcombe’s op-ed in The Stanford Daily: Once elected, honest people become corrupted by whispering lobbyists and the thrill of power, and arrogantly cease to care about those who selected them. There is ample evidence for this view: consider the districts our legislators gerrymandered for themselves — not… Continue Reading