Prop. 11 may draw a maze for voters

By Brian Joseph

October 13, 2008

SACRAMENTO When John Cannizzaro received his voter guide in the mail recently, he tried reading about "Proposition 11 Redistricting – Constitutional Amendment and Statute," but he couldn't make sense of it.

"I read it and tried to understand what they're saying," said the 77-year-old Fullerton Republican, "but for a novice trying to understand what they're saying in this book is an effort in frustration."

He's not alone. For Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the other supporters of Prop. 11, voters like Cannizzaro are a big problem.

Since 1982, seven redistricting measures have gone before voters and seven have failed. There are several reasons why, but one of the biggest seems to be that voters don't understand what redistricting , an arcane political process, is all about.

"Voters aren't that tuned in to the inside baseball of politics," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the San Francisco-based polling service the Field Poll. "They don't see the relevance. … They don't see it as important to their day-to-day lives."

" Redistricting " refers to the regular boundary adjustments made to legislative districts and, with the possible exception of seeing his friend John McCain win the White House, reforming the process is Schwarzenegger's top priority this election season.

Every decade following the federal government's census, California embarks on redrawing its legislative districts to reflect the changes in population. Over 10 years, one region might lose people and another might gain, so redistricting is important to ensure that each district represents roughly the same amount of people.

Under current law, state legislators are responsible for redrawing the districts for members of the Board of Equalization, for California's representatives in the U.S. of House of Representatives – and for themselves. Critics, including the governor, say this is a blatant conflict of interest.

Indeed, what's historically happened is that legislative Democrats and Republicans cut a deal to maintain the status quo. They agree to draw districts that are overwhelmingly populated with voters of one party or the other and they agree that the ratio of Democrat to Republican districts won't change. That's why any informed observer can predict with 100 percent accuracy the winners of all 12 of the county's state legislative races this year. The system is completely rigged to the parties' benefit.

One glaring exception is the 34th State Senate District, which covers parts of Anaheim and Santa Ana. There, changing demographics virtually eliminated the gap between Republicans and Democrats. In 2006, the two parties dumped millions into the race, with Democrat Lou Correa pulling out a narrow victory.

Correa is an oddity in the Legislature. The vast majority of his colleagues represent safe districts, so it's in their best interests to hew strongly to their party lines. Correa's district, however, is divided, so he's much more moderate. He's widely considered the most conservative of the Legislature's Democrats, yet he follows his party line on many big votes.

Correa is a perfect example of what Schwarzenegger hopes to accomplish with Prop. 11. The measure calls for taking away the Legislature's power to redraw districts and give it to an independent commission, which will be instructed to draw districts based on geography.

The result would be districts with a more even distribution of Republicans and Democrats, which in theory would lead to more moderate politicians in Sacramento and less gridlock on the Capitol.

"Now we're talking," said Cannizzaro, when the concept was explained to him. "I like that."

Schwarzenegger and the other Prop. 11 supporters are counting on voters coming to the same realization and they think they've got a good tool to help them: this year's state budget impasse. In speeches across the state, the governor has said the historic 85-day impasse was fueled by too many hard-core partisans in Sacramento.

"It is inexcusable to have a budget that is three months late," Schwarzenegger said last month. "And it is three months late because both parties stayed in their ideological corners and refused to come out."

But lining up against the measure is the State Senate's outgoing leader, Democrat Don Perata, who e-mailed Democratic supporters in June that Prop. 11 was "the last best chance to prevent us from protecting and expanding our majorities in the Legislature in the decade to come." Perata's longtime political consultant, Sandi Polka, is working for the No on Prop. 11 campaign, which through the end of last month had raised $370,000 to defeat the measure.

"We think it tilts the playing field in favor" of Republicans, said Paul Hefner, a Perata spokesman who is working for the no campaign. "It's really a raw deal for everybody," he said.

DiCamillo, the pollster, thinks the Democrats' opposition may be Prop. 11's fatal flaw. The issue is so complicated, DiCamillo says, Democrats can just criticize Prop. 11 as a Republican power grab and voters will defeat it just to be on the safe side. Back in July, the Field Poll found that 58 percent of voters intended to vote no on Prop. 11 or were undecided.

Edition: 1
Section: News
Page: Cover_A
Dateline: SACRAMENTO
Record Number: 188237711
Copyright 2008 The Orange County Register