Assembly takes up redistricting -
State: Very different proposals aim to assign responsibilities.
Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
June 11, 2007
Author: Steve Lawrence
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO - The debate over who should have the powerful task of drawing legislative and congressional districts moves to the Assembly this week as a committee takes up two very different plans to create redistricting commissions.
One proposal, by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D- Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Curren Price, D-Inglewood, would give the job to nine members of an obscure government watchdog panel - the Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy. It's commonly known as the Little Hoover Commission.
The other, by Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, would create an 11-member redistricting commission composed of registered voters picked at random from lists compiled by county and state elections officials. Voters' service on the commission would be voluntary.
The two constitutional amendments are scheduled to be considered Tuesday by the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee, which Price chairs.
Two other redistricting proposals, one by Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and the other by Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, passed the Senate on Thursday and are awaiting hearings in the Assembly.
The debate over who should draw new congressional and legislative districts after each national census has raged in Sacramento for decades. Critics complain that it's a conflict of interest for legislators to do the job.
How the districts are drawn can determine which party dominates the Legislature and California's delegation to the House of Representatives.
But voters have rejected several attempts over the years to take the task away from the Legislature and give it to a redistricting commission. The latest rejection took place in 2005, when voters turned down an initiative backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Despite that string of defeats and the reluctance of some Democrats to give up their redistricting powers, the issue may be headed for the ballot again in 2008 because of an attempt to modify legislators' term limits.
An initiative being circulated for the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot would shorten the overall time lawmakers could serve in the Legislature in most circumstances from 14 to 12 years. At the same time, it would allow more than 40 lame duck lawmakers, including the Legislature's top leaders, to run for re-election in 2008 or 2010.
Schwarzenegger has signaled that he will not support the change in term limits unless a change in redistricting procedures also is on the February ballot.
That has increased the chances that lawmakers will put a redistricting measure on the ballot - despite significant differences in the four proposals - to avoid a partisan fight that would probably sink the term limits initiative.
"Hopefully we will sit down and reconcile our differences between Democratic versions and Republican versions," said Nunez. "The fact that everyone wants to get it done is reason for me to be optimistic."
On the Net
www.senate.ca.gov
www.assembly.ca.gov
Edition: MAIN
Section: NEWS
Page: 2A
Index Terms: NFL
Copyright (c) 2007 Press-Telegram
Record Number: 0706110071