SACRAMENTO
California lawmakers back new amendments
Proposed measures relax term limits, reform redistricting
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
(04-17) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- Echoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's call to prohibit legislators from drawing their own district lines, a Republican state senator introduced a proposal Monday to give that job to an independent commission.
The wide-ranging constitutional amendment, which would need voter approval, would also loosen term limits for lawmakers and prohibit campaign contribution solicitations during the final weeks of the legislative session and during budget negotiations.
"This is an all-encompassing measure. (It) brings several ideas together in a single format," said the plan's author, state Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield.
The proposed constitutional amendment is the latest machination in the politics of California's new February 2008 presidential primary.
Termed-out lawmakers are eager to place a measure giving them longer legislative life on the February 2008 ballot. If voters agree to relax term limits, incumbent lawmakers could seek re-election in the June legislative primary.
An initiative backed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, is being circulated for the February ballot to reduce the number of years a state lawmaker can serve from 14 to 12 but allow those years to all be served in one or both houses.
The Republican governor insists that his support for relaxing term limits is contingent on placing before voters in February restrictions on soliciting campaign contributions and removing the once-a-decade task of drawing legislative district boundaries from the hands of lawmakers.
Schwarzenegger applauded Ashburn's constitutional amendment but stopped short of endorsing it.
"The governor is extremely pleased the Legislature is starting to move toward redistricting reform," said Adam Mendelsohn, Schwarzenegger's communications director. "Redistricting and campaign finance reform are critical issues for the governor."
Núñez is expected to announce a redistricting initiative later this week for placement on next February's ballot.
GOP and Democratic leaders of the Senate have a differing strategy fearing that voters will reject a term limits-only ballot measure.
They think term limits and redistricting and campaign finance changes should be combined -- like Ashburn's proposal, Senate Constitutional Amendment 9.
"It wasn't a surprise," said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, of Ashburn's announcement. "The Republicans have been pretty adamant all along that if anything is done on term limits and redistricting it has to be done together."
Last year, Ashburn and Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, were co-authors of a similar redistricting plan. It passed the Senate but died in the Assembly.
Ashburn's proposal would allow state lawmakers to continue to draw the lines of congressional districts, while the independent commission would draw districts for Assembly and state Senate.
On term limits, Ashburn's plan mirrors the initiative backed by the Assembly speaker.
Ashburn would prohibit campaign contributions from being made to lawmakers and the governor from mid-May until a final budget is signed into law.
Contributions would also be banned during the final month of the legislative session and the month following it when the governor acts on the legislation sent to him.
Ashburn said he wants his proposal and other ideas on changes to the legislative process to be heard by a special two-house committee.
"I'm sure there are other good government reforms that ought to be discussed," Ashburn said.
This article appeared on page D - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle