Eliminating a big conflict

Santa Maria Times

October 15, 2008

California voters should not be surprised on Nov. 4 to find the usual slew of ballot initiatives, ranging from the highly technical - political code for “expensive” - to the highly emotional.

We'll deal with many of those propositions in another editorial, but today we make a recommendation on Prop. 11, which is, by far, the most important for the state's future.

Prop. 11 would take the drawing of district lines out of the hands of members of the Legislature, and put the responsibility with an independently selected group of 14 citizens.

Why changing this process is critically important can be summed up as follows: Since Democrat and Republican lawmakers conspired to gerrymander district lines to favor incumbents in 2001, there have been 495 legislation and congressional races in California - yet only four seats have changed parties.

What this means is that each party has carved out its turf, which is off limits to the other major party, and clearly beyond the reach of any candidate outside the Big Two's magic circle.

Good for partisan politics, bad for California.

Taking this concept a step further, when the Legislature is in charge of drawing district lines, thus protecting party faithful, true policy making is left in the dust. Each party's hard-liners take their stand on certain issues, and the political process grinds to a complete halt.

Case in point: The most recent state budget that was held hostage for 85 days by partisanship and political game-playing - because leaders of both parties had no compelling reason to compromise. If, instead, they had to worry about running for re-election in a district that was not the result of gerrymandering, there would at least be some semblance of the need to reach a middle ground.

The annual budget impasse in Sacramento is just one of many reasons why the job of redistricting every 10 years should be taken away from the Legislature, and handed over to a truly bipartisan committee.

You might not be able to keep the partisan politics out of such an arrangement, but at least, by passing Prop. 11, voters would eliminate the blatant conflict of interest lawmakers now have by drawing up their own safe and cozy districts.

We recommend a “yes” vote on Proposition 11. The future of California depends on it.

Section: Opinion
Record Number: 781cb86de8f9da8f66e82a85a834bed2a6b528dd
Copyright, 2008, Santa Maria Times, Santa Maria, CA