From Peter Schrag’s Sac Bee column on the PPIC conference: The implicit message here: Beware of excessive enthusiasm for political reform. It was a useful message for goo-goos to hear. *** As to reforming the redistricting process, to quote Burton, ordinary people don’t “give a s—.” As Brown said, every legislator does what his or… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Redistricting
Redistricting and the Courts in Wisconsin
From Mark Pitsch’s article in the Wisconsin State Journal: The Legislature ‘s top Republican says the Wisconsin Supreme Court is exceeding its authority by drafting plans to rewrite the boundaries of voting districts. *** The Supreme Court says it has to be ready to write legislative district maps in the event lawmakers can ‘t agree… Continue Reading
“Incumbents, Beware”
That’s the title of Josh Kraushaar’s article in Politico, writing about developing Congressional primary battles: An unusually large number of members of Congress are being seriously challenged in primaries this election cycle… *** Unlike in past election cycles, when redistricting or ethical misconduct has largely driven the primary challenges, many of these newfound challenges are… Continue Reading
Redistricting Roundup
Dan Weintraub asks whether or not the Governor is “headed for another debacle at the polls, ala 2005?” And if the Democrats oppose the redistricting initiative, it will almost certainly go down. Recent history around the country — and here — suggests that no attempt to reform redistricting can succeed without the support of the… Continue Reading
Spotlight on the Policy Wonks
The prize for the hottest [alright, so I exaggerate a little] policy report in California in the last few weeks likely goes to Sasha Horwitz of the Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) and Termed Out: Reforming California’s Legislative Term Limits (pdf). See our earlier post for more info. His bio from the CGS website: Sasha… Continue Reading
Redistricting Roundup: Voters FIRST Initiative
Dan Carino, Capitol Weekly Capitol Weekly is also running an article by state senator Alan Lowenthal: We don’t really need a multimillion-dollar signature-gathering drive to put redistricting reform on the November ballot, as the governor and advocates have promised to do. All we need to do is pass a bill out of the Assembly that… Continue Reading
CA Dems to Gain How Many Congressional Seats in ’12?
Chris Reed of the San Diego U-T disputes Dan Walters recent claim that without congressional redistricting reform we could see a “Democratic Legislature and a Democratic governor swiping five or six seats in California for the 2012 elections to solidify their party’s hold on Congress.” Dan Walters responded, as did our consulting fellow Douglas Johnson:… Continue Reading
PPIC Legislative Reform Conference Coverage UPDATED
UPDATE: PPIC has posted video of the event. See also George Skelton’s Los Angeles Times column: It was refreshing to re-inhale whiffs of odorous politics — to hear old lawmakers wax nostalgic about boozing, carousing and secretly cutting deals in smoke-filled rooms. Refreshing, because much of today’s poll-driven, spin-dependent, politically opportunistic legislating is offensive to… Continue Reading
Voter’s FIRST Doomed Without Democratic Support?
Tim Herdt of the Ventura County Star says: The most recent statewide survey on the question, done in September by the Public Policy Institute of California, found 66 percent support for the notion of creating an independent commission to draw political district maps. But don’t let that number fool you. The fact is, this new… Continue Reading
OSU Symposium: Election Law and the Roberts Court
Rick Hasen’s Election Law blog points out an Ohio State University symposium (webcast here) on election law and the Roberts court. I’ve pasted links to some of the interesting redistricting articles from the Ohio State Law Journal below: Continue Reading