AM Alert: Shrinking the redistricting panel pool

The Sacramento Bee
June 30, 2010

The pool of applicants for the Citizens Redistricting Commission may shrink today.

A three-member applicant review panel meets this morning to continue to review potential members of the commission tasked with redrawing state legislative and Board of Equalization districts after the 2010 Census results are released.

The state auditor's office received 31,000 completed applications to serve on the panel of 14 Californians, which was created by Proposition 11 of 2008.

The review panel cut nearly 4,000 eligible applicants from the pool on June 11, bringing the number of commission hopefuls down to 622. The review panel is now tasked with whittling that number down to 120 applicants -- 40 Democrats, 40 Republicans and 40 decline-to-state or minor party members -- all of whom will be interviewed by late summer.

The review panel's 9:30 a.m. meeting will be webcast. Click here for a list of the remaining applicants.

Scrutiny of the finalists is expected to heat up during this summer, as the redistricting fight returns to the ballot box with dueling initiatives to expand (Proposition 20) or eliminate (Proposition 27) the commission's powers.

The state Democratic and Republican parties are expected to be on opposite sides of those propositions. At least that's what their leaders suggested yesterday at the Sacramento Press Club luncheon.

"We're probably going to wind up on opposite sides of the whole damn election. I mean that's why we've got two parties," California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton said.

California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring said he would be "shocked" if his party did not align itself with Proposition 20, the measure to expand the commission. "If (the commission is) good for legislative districts, then folks can rationally conclude it's good for congressional district as well," he said.

Nehring added that he would also be shocked if the party didn't oppose Proposition 27, which would give the job of redrawing state legislative and Board of Equalization districts back to the Legislature. He called that initiative a "bizarre," desperate move on behalf of Democrats seeking to undermine a fair redistricting process.

But Burton said he believed the system for selecting the commission members themselves was so flawed that it would be thrown out by the courts. The pool of applicants has come under fire throughout the process for not being diverse enough.

"I just don't know how they come up with (14) people that reflect the diversity of this state. And if it doesn't come out that way, you can trust me there will be a Latino challenge and other challenges," he said.

Burton also suggested that some of the conflict-of-interest requirements could weed out applicants who know and understand the complicated process.

"Where the hell do you find anybody who's never done anything political?" he asked.