GOP ends effort to block redistricting

Ed Mendel
The San Diego Union-Tribune
March 30, 2000

A week after putting $170,000 into the drive, congressional Republicans changed their mind about funding an initiative that would prevent the Democratic-controlled Legislature from drawing new legislative and congressional districts.

The last-minute drive to place the initiative on the November ballot ended after congressional Republicans, divided about the merit of the move, decided not to provide the additional $1 million or more needed to gather signatures.

"Both of us kind of mutually pulled the plug," said Ted Costa of People's Advocate, the author of the initiative.

The shape of new districts, which are drawn once each decade to reflect population shifts recorded by the federal census, can help determine which party controls Congress and the Legislature, which is key to how and where billions of taxpayer dollars are spent.

Republicans fear that the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis, the first Democratic governor in 16 years, will pass legislation next year creating new districts drawn to give Democrats an unfair advantage for the rest of the decade.

Congressional Republicans provided most of the money last year for a Costa-written initiative that would have given redistricting to the courts while also cutting the pay of legislators.

But in December, the state Supreme Court removed Proposition 24 from the March ballot, declaring that the measure violated a constitutional requirement that ballot measures be limited to a single subject.

After months of indecision and internal squabbling, congressional Republicans gave $170,000 to a drive for a new initiative written by Costa that was limited to giving redistricting to a three-member panel appointed by the state Judicial Council.

But, Costa said, at a meeting last Thursday evening congressional Republicans decided to provide no more money for the initiative. Costa said as much as $200,000 a week may have been needed to gather enough signatures by the deadline of around May 1.

Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, a leading supporter of Proposition 24, pushed for the new initiative. But other Republican members of Congress apparently thought the initiative was likely to be rejected by voters, the fate of four similar ballot measures in the last two decades.

Costa said there is speculation at the Capitol that Democrats may seek a bipartisan agreement on redistricting. For example, Republican legislators, angered by the attempt in Proposition 24 to cut their pay, may be offered a plan intended to preserve the status quo in the Legislature, while making major changes in the congressional seats.

"I think the national Republican Party has made our job a lot easier here in California," said a Democratic legislative aide.

In 1982, Republicans quickly gathered enough signatures to place Democratic-drawn districts before voters in a referendum. But if Republicans help provide the two-thirds vote needed to pass redistricting bills as urgency legislation next year, there could be no referendum because urgency measures cannot be placed before the voters.

The early primary, moved from June to March to give California more clout in presidential elections, also makes a redistricting referendum difficult if there is no bipartisan agreement.

Davis could sign new Democratic-drawn districts on Oct. 1 next year, shortly before candidates must begin taking out papers for the March 2002 primary elections. Republicans might only have five or six weeks to gather signatures for a referendum before candidates begin filing in the new districts.