Marin Voice: Don't derail citizen redistricting

Peter Van Meter
Marin Independent Journal
September 12, 2010

IN NOVEMBER 2008, the voters of California passed Proposition 11, turning the process of drawing boundaries for the state Assembly, state Senate and Board of Equalization districts over to a Citizens Redistricting Commission.

These districts are redrawn every 10 years following the census.

The voters recognized the downside of having the Legislature draw district boundaries, as they traditionally have gerrymandered the districts to favor political parties and incumbents. These secure districts have resulted in non-competitive elections, permanent reelection within term limits and the entrenchment of extreme positions on both sides of the aisle.

Under Proposition 11, the commission is prohibited from favoring or discriminating against parties, incumbents or candidates.

Now, in a blatant power grab, the Legislature has put Proposition 27 on the ballot in November. It would eliminate the Citizens Redistricting Commission and return the process to the Legislature, as before.

But it's worse than that, as Proposition 27 loosens the district boundary criteria to enable even more gerrymandering. No longer would districts have to be geographically compact. No longer would there have to be two Assembly districts together within one state Senate district, resulting in more opportunity for nefarious line drawing.

And ... they're trying to pull a fast one, naming Proposition 27 the "Financial Accountability in Redistricting Act," since it includes a provision to cap the cost of the process at $2.5 million (reduced from an estimated $3 million.)

Under Proposition 11, the selection of a pool of commission candidates is being done by a neutral state agency, the office of the state Auditor. A three- member Applicant Review Panel from that office undertook this task starting in February, and will submit a list of the 60 of the "most qualified" candidates by Oct. 1 (20 Democrats, 20 Republicans and 20 other.) Additional review and random drawing leads to the 14 member Commission being in place by Dec. 31.

Interviews of 120 finalists are underway now.

As an active participant in the process of selecting the commission members, I have a firsthand impression of how it's going. I attended two day-long meetings of the Applicant Review Panel in Sacramento, where its members discussed their review process and specific applicant qualifications.

They read all 4,546 detailed supplemental applications (each with five 500-word essays) and reread them as they narrowed the pool.

I am pleased to have made it through eliminations to a group of 314, along with three others from Marin. Unfortunately, none of us made it to the next group of 157.

Throughout, this effort has been conducted with the highest degree of commitment and integrity. Each ARP member has demonstrated their determination to select the most qualified applicants while assuring that the pool truly represents the diversity of California.

At each level of the process of narrowing the pool, members reviewed the race/ethnicity, gender, economic status and geographic region statistics to be sure there was good representation for all Californians.

Those who assert that the Legislature can do a better job of understanding diversity have absolutely no basis whatsoever for such a claim. The finalist group is comprised of many extraordinary people.

Based on the quality of remaining candidates, I am convinced the Citizens Redistricting Commission has the potential of doing an exemplary job of drawing district lines.

Which brings us to another November ballot measure, Proposition 20. The "Voters FIRST Act for Congress," adds the task of drawing House of Representatives districts to the Commission's duties. This is a no-brainer addition, for all of the same reasons that Proposition 11 was passed in the first place.

We need to choose our elected officials, and not have them choose us. Vote "yes" on 20 and "no" on 27.

Former Sausalito City Councilman Peter Van Meter was an applicant for the state's Citizens Redistricting Commission.