VOTER PANEL PROPOSED FOR REDISTRICTING EFFORT

VOTER PANEL PROPOSED FOR REDISTRICTING EFFORT

San Jose Mercury News (CA)

January 5, 2006

Two months after voters rejected Proposition 77, supporters of the redistricting measure announced a new initiative campaign Wednesday to take the power to draw legislative and congressional districts away from lawmakers.

''There is broad agreement across the political spectrum that our current political system is broken, and that one of the reasons it is broken is that we have politicians drawing their own political boundaries,'' said Derek Cressman, director of TheRestofUs.org, a political watchdog group.

The new initiative would create an 11-member commission made up of registered voters picked at random by the secretary of state to draw new districts after each national census.

The panel would be composed of four Democrats, four Republicans and three independents or members of minor parties. It could not include anyone who had run for public office, been a political appointee, worked for a political party or been a lobbyist in the previous 10 years.

Proposition 77 would have turned redistricting duties over to a panel of three retired judges.

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Memo: State News In Brief

Edition: Morning Final
Section: California News
Page: 5B

Dateline: SACRAMENTO

Record Number: 0601060051