Governor again floats plan for redistricting

December 3, 2006 Sunday
METRO FINAL EDITION

SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1334 words
BYLINE: Kevin Yamamura Bee Capitol Bureau

BODY:

Out of California's 306 state legislative and congressional races in the past two general elections, only one seat -- that belonging to Rep. Richard Pombo -- changed party hands.

Government watchdogs say the lack of competition has bred complacency and allowed party leaders to install fierce partisans who make compromise difficult. They suggest the trend will continue as long as legislators draw their own political boundaries every decade.

With that in mind, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once again will ask the Legislature to overhaul the state's redistricting system by turning the process over to an independent commission of voters.

"Now, I know firsthand that nothing drives excellence more than the threat of competition, and that's why I want California to lead the way to show the rest of the nation what true political reform is really all about," Schwarzenegger said in his Saturday radio address. " Redistricting can be done by moving the power into the hands of a neutral body."

But history has been unkind to redistricting ballot proposals. Voters have rejected five redistricting propositions since 1982, including a Schwarzenegger-backed plan in 2005. The governor believes he can get the Legislature to endorse a deal this time, but that task may prove nearly impossible.

"It's always been difficult because you're simply asking politicians to act against their own self-interests," said John J. Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College. "For incumbents, it's pretty cool to be able to choose your own electorate."

If this time is any different, it may be because veteran lawmakers approaching the end of their limited tenure see an opportunity to combine redistricting with a term-limit change that allows them to stay in power longer.

One early Assembly idea would include changes in redistricting, term limits and California's 2008 presidential primary date to give Assembly and Senate leaders a chance to extend their time in power. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D- Los Angeles, would stand to benefit most by such a change, as his term in the lower house expires in 2008.

Nunez broached the subject last week in a meeting with Schwarzenegger, and he said the Republican governor was receptive to the idea. Schwarzenegger previously has suggested he would be open to a change in the state's term-limits law as a means of taking redistricting out of the Legislature's hands.

"We talked about working together on a common plan that deals with redistricting, term limits and the presidential primary," Nunez said. "I'm very open to it."

Under the plan, lawmakers would agree to support a redistricting ballot proposal as long as it came with another alteration to the term-limits law allowing legislators to serve a total of 12 years in either house, rather than the currently prescribed six years in the Assembly and eight years in the Senate.

The package also would create a separate 2008 presidential primary election in March, on the surface giving California more influence over the eventual presidential nominees. But that change would allow incumbent lawmakers to put the term-limits plan on the early ballot.

If voters agree to a term-limits change in March 2008, some termed-out legislators could file for re-election in the state primary in June and serve longer. Nunez could conceivably serve another six years in the lower house and retain his speakership. The Democrat said legislative leaders have been "thinking out loud" about such a change.

Schwarzenegger has always believed that redistricting is "fundamental to restoring people's faith in government," Margita Thompson, the governor's press secretary, said. He hasn't taken a position on the idea of merging term limits and the presidential primary into the redistricting plan, she said.

Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, who wrote last year's redistricting legislation, said that any redistricting ballot initiative would suffer without legislative endorsement.

"The hope is to not have any organized opposition to it when it reaches the ballot," Lowenthal said. "I think redistricting fails when you have major opposition, and the more you completely disregard the Legislature, the more you're going to have opposition to it in a campaign."

Lowenthal said he believes the Legislature will still want some role in redistricting, but that it should not control the process or pre-select the independent commission members.

Under the current system, state lawmakers parcel out congressional and state legislative districts every decade, with the next such redraw due in 2011.

Ted Costa, executive director of People's Advocate, which has sought changes in government ranging from term limits to a part-time Legislature, believes the current redistricting system has diminished competition so much that most representatives do not feel beholden to constituents. Even though Costa disagrees with the philosophies of the Democratic challengers to Pombo and Rep. John Doolittle, he said their opposition sparked a "healthy democracy."

Schwarzenegger called for redistricting changes as far back as his recall campaign in 2003. In 2005, the governor threw his support behind Proposition 77, which would have required three retired judges to draw political lines. The proposal failed, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Nunez vowed to work this year on a new redistricting plan. But lawmakers in August allowed the redistricting plan to die before it could be placed on the November ballot.

Costa and other redistricting advocates of various political stripes are working together under the aegis of the nonpartisan group Voices of Reform, meeting with aides for the governor and lawmakers this fall.

Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, a government reform organization, said redistricting legislation may be introduced as soon as lawmakers return Monday for the new session.

She said one plan would create an independent commission pool for which any California voter would be eligible. Lawmakers would be able to strike some people from the pool, but they would not be able to select exactly who serves on the final 11-member panel. She said the plan would ensure that the state recruits a diverse group of voters to serve on the redistricting commission.

"This wouldn't take power away from the Legislature entirely, but it also wouldn't look like 11 people were serving as proxies for the Legislature," Feng said.

The Voices of Reform group is focused only on pursuing redistricting changes. Its members have varying opinions on whether to allow term limits and presidential primary proposals to enter the discussion.

Feng said Common Cause supports term-limit changes, whether they be an extension of the current restrictions or enabling members to serve a total of 12 years.

She said, however, that she would not want a proposal that would enact the redistricting plan only if the term-limits change passed. She said she believes the two ballot propositions should stand on their own, and she said they could not by law appear in the same ballot proposal.

Costa, who strongly backed the current term-limits system in 1990, said he doesn't want to connect the redistricting plan to any other proposal, though he concedes there will be plenty of negotiations ahead.

Feng said she plans to work first with the Legislature and the governor this year to reach a compromise, but that she is also working on putting a separate initiative on the 2008 ballot should lawmakers fail to act.

Even with a change in term limits as a carrot, lawmakers may not feel compelled to focus on redistricting in a year when health care, the budget and overcrowded prisons will loom as significant issues.

"Oh, it's the No. 1 topic on the list of every Californian," Nunez said sarcastically about an issue that ranks well below education and immigration in the minds of voters. "I get calls every day from my constituency about it."