District shifts raise issues

Pasadena Star-News
November 1, 2002
Author: Gary Scott, Staff Writer

PASADENA

It has been criticized as an "incumbency protection plan,' a conspiracy among Democrats and Republicans to redraw California's political boundaries so that those in power remain in power, challengers stay on the sidelines and voters are written out of the equation altogether.

Some political experts even think the state's 2001 redistricting plan will encourage unprecedented voter apathy come Tuesday, as an already disaffected electorate faces registration numbers that make it almost impossible to unseat most incumbents in races for Assembly, state Senate and congressional seats.

"The districts are so rigged that it is not going to reflect public opinion in any way,' said Leroy Hardy, former adviser to the California Democratic Congressional Delegation. He quit the job after his party manipulated the 1980 Census to take control of the state Legislature, he said.

"Basically, the problem is incumbents in both parties have lost sight of the idea of representative government. They turned representation into another form of bureaucratic self- advancement.'

States are constitutionally required to reapportion political districts every 10 years so that each kind contains an equal number of people. The districts are supposed to be contiguous, compact and combine "communities of interest.' But the process is rarely simple, since political power can shift in a region, or throughout the entire state, with a few strokes of the pen.

In California, the Legislature does the redistricting. Since Democrats controlled both houses and the Governor's Office this time around, they controlled the process.

"The No. 1 priority of course was to protect Democratic incumbents, and Republicans did the best they could to protect their incumbents,' said Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College and former deputy director of research for the Republican National Committee. He said computer technology made it easier to fine-tune the lines for partisan advantage.

Pitney predicts redistricting will result in a low voter turnout, possibly a record low, because there is a lack of competition in the races.

"At this stage, the only thing nonpartisan advocates can say is that it is a duty to vote, that your vote can make a difference,' Pitney said. "Unfortunately, that is not true. Your vote is not going to make a difference.'

In the March primary, only 25 percent of Los Angeles County's registered voters went to the polls, according to Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Conny McCormack, while the number traditionally hovered around 50 percent in a gubernatorial election year.

Not everyone thinks incumbents are truly safe under the plan. Darren Chesin, chief consultant to the committee that drafted the Congressional and state Senate districts, said that changes in demographics and myriad other issues will pull voters back into the process. In the short run, the hot contests are found in the primaries, he added.

"The bottom line is, the person who goes to Sacramento is the person voters like the best,' he said. "You never know what is going to sway voters ... one thing I will guarantee you is there will be surprises (on Tuesday), there always are.'

The consequences of redistricting go farther than incumbency protection as cities, and parts of cities, are moved around to meet political goals. For instance, the city of San Marino will lose its entire slate of locally elected representatives come January. The affluent enclave of 12,945 voted overwhelmingly 67 percent for candidate George W. Bush in 2000 and is a Republican stronghold. It became a hot potato in attempts to bolster Democratic representation in the West San Gabriel Valley.

San Marino was excised from the 44th Assembly District, which already includes several conservative cities north of the Foothill (210) Freeway, and stuffed into the 49th Assembly District, which consists mostly of Democratic cities along the San Bernardino (10) Freeway. It was taken out of Democratic state Sen. Jack Scott's 21st District but then put into one of the most Democratic senate districts in the state, the 22nd. And it was removed from the 29th Congressional District and put into the 26th, which will likely be represented by Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora.

"The best thing that can be said about redistricting is that it only happens once every 10 years,' said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who loses San Marino and gains a portion of Monterey Park. "I wish there was more continuity, I wish there was a stronger effort to keep communities together.'

It is one area where he and David Wilcox, president of the Foothills Republican Club, can agree.

"It has made a mess for us,' Wilcox said. "My biggest concern is people not knowing where to vote.'