The California Legislature Must Act on Redistricting Reform NOW

By Janis R. Hirohama / President-League of Women Voters of California

Date: 09/10/2007

The Legislature has had sufficient time to consider redistricting reform, given all of the work that has already been done on the issue and the number of bills introduced. After three years of intense research and discussion among all the stakeholders, the time has come to pass a viable redistricting plan.

The Senate has passed two redistricting bills that await action in the Assembly, and we understand that legislative leaders are discussing a recent proposal from Speaker Nunez. There is no reason why the session should end before a redistricting bill has been passed and placed on the February ballot.

California Common Cause, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center , and the League of Women Voters of California have reviewed the Speaker's proposal with great care. We commend the Speaker for being committed to the issue and moving forward. However, important changes are needed in order to address our concerns with the proposal.

Specifically, the proposal's selection process gives the Legislature too much unfettered ability to hand pick many of the commissioners. We recommend that all commissioners, including the legislative picks, come from a screened pool of applicants, as the two Senate bills require. We believe that the proportion of commissioners who are not members of the two major parties should be larger.

We also feel that the proposed list of conflicts of interest that would disqualify potential commissioners is inadequate to ensure that commissioners are free of ties to elected officials. The “look-back” period for conflicts of interest needs to be longer than the proposed one term for elected officials and candidates or one year for the other categories. And looking forward, there should be a ten-year ban on commissioners running for an office in a district whose lines they've drawn.

We believe the Speaker's proposal is close to what we want in a redistricting reform proposal. We also note that the redistricting reform bill we supported last year is substantially the basis of SCA 10 (Lowenthal) and the redistricting portion of SCA 9 (Ashburn). The basis for a workable compromise is present in the bills now before the Legislature. We look forward to continuing work with the Speaker and other legislators to get this important reform on the February ballot and approved by the voters of California .