Another View: Breaking partisan logjam

By Whittier Daily News Staff Write

August 8, 2009

Proposition 11, the so-called Voters FIRST Act, was approved in November and touted as a way to break the legislative stranglehold political parties have on California.

How? By taking out of the hands of lawmakers the power to draw their own districts. Safe districts might not be so safe anymore. And, politicians who actually are interested in compromise and getting things done might emerge from a system that now rewards extremism on both sides of the aisle.

But putting Prop. 11 into action is a long, tedious process. Late last week the state auditor published the proposed regulations for what will be the 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission. What follows is a 45-day comment period on the proposed rules.

Eventually, applications will be accepted for the commission. Each of the two major parties will have five members with four others being affiliated with no political party.

The panel is to be established by Dec. 31, 2010, and then California will have a new system for drawing the districts for the state Senate and Assembly and the state Board of Equalization.

Will it work? A narrow majority of 50.9 percent of California voters thought so in November. Or at least they thought the system we have now is so flawed it must be changed.

As the legislative logjam over the budget we've witnessed in recent months amply demonstrates, something has to change, and Prop. 11 is at least an opportunity to do so.