PROP. 11 VICTORY GOES SOUR FOR GOP - PARTY PUSHED FOR REDISTRICTING PLAN

Jim Sanders
The Modesto Bee
March 28, 2011

Victory no longer is sweet for California Republican Party interests that helped strip the Democrat-controlled Legislature of the right to draw political districts.

Republicans say the fledgling 14-member independent commission they helped create through passage of Proposition 11 in 2008 is tilting to the left.

State GOP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro cried foul last week over the hiring of Q2 Data and Research to provide expertise in drawing 177 legislative, congressional and Board of Equalization districts.

"We haven't seen the final results, but they certainly have opened the door to wide-ranging suspicion, and that defeats the purpose of the process," Del Beccaro said of commissioners.

Because the panel consists of ordinary citizens, not redistricting experts, the hiring of a line-drawing consultant is a lightning rod.

Redistricting, a once-a- decade process, strikes at the heart of political power because it can tilt a competitive district left or right.

Creation of the commission was championed by GOP Gov. Schwarzenegger partly as a backlash to lines drawn by legislative leaders in 2001 to protect incumbents.

Built-in advantage?

Republicans contend that Q2 always had an inside track with the commission: Primary owner Karin Mac Donald was a trainer for the panel.

Q2 met bidding requirements only after a last-minute change by the commission, which initially demanded experience in redistricting projects involving about 2 million people but dropped the standard to about 300,000.

"The process has not been fair and impartial," said political analyst Tony Quinn, a former GOP legislative staff member and a board member of the Rose Institute, the only other bidder.

Dan Claypool, commission executive director, said the change in bidding documents was meant to expand the pool of applicants, not to benefit any firm seeking the $550,000 contract.

"We think they're doing an excellent job -- it's tough, but they're doing thorough, thoughtful work," Trudy Schafer, of the League of Women Voters of California, said of the redistricting panel.

Del Beccaro and other Republicans object to Q2 largely because a minority partner is Bruce Cain, a chief adviser to Assembly Democrats in a controversial 1981 redistricting. Mac Donald, Q2's primary owner, is registered as an independent voter.

Steve Maviglio, Democratic strategist, dismissed claims of bias as GOP nonsense.

"They somehow thought when they backed Proposition 11 that that meant they were going to have an advantage," Maviglio said. "It hasn't resulted in that -- so now they have sour grapes."

The Rose Institute could not have won the contract, regardless, Maviglio said. Its bid was disqualified for failure to disclose donors and for failing to clearly identify staff conflicts of interest. Three GOP commissioners dissented.