Maybe Mayor Bloomberg Should Spend His Money at Home Before Helping Schwarzenegger's Republican Redistricting Measure

Steven Maviglio

April 10, 2008

Talk about New York chutzpah.

New York Mayor/Billionaire Michael Bloomberg gave $250,000 to the Schwarzenegger Republican redistricting initiative today.

Maybe the money would be better spent at home, where the Mayor could practice what he's trying to preach to California voters.

The New York City Redistricting Commission of 15 members is made up entirely of appointments by elected officials (7 Mayor, 5 majority leader, 3 minority leader). Compare that to the Schwarzenegger initiative -- which has no elected appointments. The Schwarzenegger initiative also requires equal representation for the minority party.

The New York City council can reject their draft plan by a majority vote and make them go back before adopting a final map. Schwarzenegger's plan has no legislative oversight.

The New York City commission has no pre-screening of commission members. Schwarzenegger's initiative requires auditors to create pool of eligible commissioners.

The New York City commission has diversity requirements. Schwarzenegger's plan has weak language.

The New York City redistricting plan puts communities of interest ahead of county/borough splits. Schwarzenegger's plan puts artificial political boundaries first.

And my favorite quote from the New York plan: "Districts shall not be drawn for the purpose of separating geographic concentrations of voters enrolled in the same political party into two or more districts in order to diminish the effective representation of such voters."

Schwarzenegger's plan explicitly prohibits using political data to establish a community of interest.

Bloomberg represents yet another wealthy contributor to a campaign being fronted by so-called good government groups that once fought for campaign spending limits. Maybe they ought to ask Mayor Bloomberg to endorse a plan that resembles one that he has at home, instead of one that's flawed.