Our View: Politicians behind anti-reform measures

San Gabriel Valley Tribune
July 31, 2010

The politicians must be getting nervous.

That's the only explanation for the machinations coming from the creaky political machines in Sacramento and Washington about a new process for re-drawing the lines of Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization seats.

What we see as desperately needed reform that will bring back accountability, some Democrats, including Rep. Howard Berman, D-Los Angeles, former Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, see as confusing or detrimental to their and their party's interests.

Calderon recently warned anyone in earshot that the process approved by voters in 2008 as Proposition 11 may mean no one in any new district would know who he is, as no one will know what these new districts will look like. Translation: He's nervous he could lose.

Before more of these weak and merely personal arguments get credence, let's review the facts. The ballot measure set off a wave of new interest in cleaning up government. About 30,000 citizens applied to become part of a 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission. That's a great sign. Many of those folks were local to us. The 120 potential members now being interviewed for the final body are a mix of everyday citizens and community pillars. Again, good stuff.

The new commission will get rid of gerrymandered, lawmaker-drawn districts with zigzagged boundaries that tear the heart out of local communities built to assure a lopsided majority of registered voters for one party and the election of one candidate.

Instead, the new law requires the commission to draw districts that comply with all federal laws, don't favor one political party over another, maintain a city or county's integrity in a single district and attempt to place two Assembly districts into each Senate district. The goal is to make the general election races competitive, not the one-sided laughers they are today.

If you think we're kidding, take a look at what happened to the 57th Assembly District that includes West Covina. The winner of the June Republican primary, Brian Gutierrez, last week endorsed his Democratic opponent, West Covina City Councilman Roger Hernandez. He's already thrown in the towel three months before the election. That doesn't happen in presidential or gubernatorial races. You didn't see John McCain endorsing Barack Obama for president.

Why do we have rigorous presidential elections but allow for jerry-rigged state Assembly and Senate elections? We absolutely should not. And that's why the people passed Prop. 11, and why it was supported by a wide array of citizen groups from Common Cause to the California Chamber of Commerce.

Another argument lodged against allowing a citizens commission to draw the boundaries instead of the Legislature itself was that the commission would not be ethnically diverse.

Guess what? The 120-member group so far is 30 percent Latino, 12 percent black, 14 percent Asian American and nearly half female. That's fairly close to the breakdown of registered voters in this state. Even some opponents, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, were pleasantly surprised. Arturo Vargas told our editorial board that his group asked the state Department of Audits to pick more people of color "and these numbers have been better than we thought they would be."

But now the group is saying it doesn't like that the Legislature itself will whittle down the last group to 14. They can't have it both ways. Some are supporting Proposition 27 on Nov. 2, would would stop the process cold, fire the commission and throw the redrawing of the lines themselves back into the laps of the Legislature.

Prop. 27 is a desperate measure by politicians worried about their world being upended. It should be voted down. We also support Prop. 20, which would expand the duties of the Citizens Redistricting Commission to include redrawing Congressional districts.

The redistricting process should move forward without further interference from the politicians. They might as well get used to it - democracy is making a comeback.