Mogul seeks to kill redistricting panel - 'POWER RANGERS' PRODUCER LOANS $2 MILLION TO CAMPAIGN

Torey Van Oot
April 13, 2010

Haim Saban, entertainment mogul behind "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" and frequent political donor, has loaned $2 million to a campaign to overturn California's new system of drawing political district boundaries.

The money could help upend a system Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other supporters say will lead to more competitive legislative races and, ultimately, a more moderate Legislature. Saban's cash also could help stifle a separate ballot effort to expand the redistricting commission's once-a-decade task to congressional districts.

Less than two years after voters approved Proposition 11 to create a 14-member citizens redistricting commission, former Fair Political Practices Commission Chairman Daniel Lowenstein, Rep. Howard Berman, D-North Hollywood, and his brother Michael, a Democratic consultant, are pushing a measure to return district-drawing responsibility to the Legislature.

Saban's loan, reported Friday to the secretary of state, gives them a boost as the deadline nears for submitting the nearly 700,000 valid voter signatures needed to qualify it for the November ballot.

The push to eliminate the commission comes as the proposed measure to add redrawing congressional districts to the commission's duties -- a move opposed by California's congressional Democrats -- appears poised to qualify for the ballot.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of California's congressional delegation opposed including congressional districts in the 2008 measure and have made large contributions to Lowenstein's effort to eliminate the commission.

Fred Woocher, an attorney representing the Lowenstein effort, said the campaign has been gathering signatures and hopes to turn in its petitions in the next few weeks.

"As far as I know, we are on target to hit the magic numbers and make it on the November ballot," he said.

Saban, a big Democratic donor who has also given to GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Schwarzenegger, gave $200,000 to support Proposition 11 in 2008. His recent loan brings him in line with the Democrats in Congress whose campaigns he has contributed to in the past.

"It is puzzling that Mr. Saban would support Prop. 11 and want to hold state legislators accountable to a citizens commission, but would later turn around and support a measure that would take away power from voters and give it back to politicians," said Kathay Feng, executive director of Common Cause, a government ethics watchdog group that supported Proposition 11.