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Josiah Greene
Speaker Pelosi and Other Congressional Leaders to Governor Schwarzenegger: Your Redistricting Measure is Deeply FlawedIn a letter sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chair of the California Democratic Congressional Committee, Joe Baca, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Mike Honda, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Carolyn Kilpatrick, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, expressed their opposition to Proposition 11, the redistricting initiative spearheaded by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and funded primarily from Republican donors. The House leaders explained that they oppose the initiative "because it is a vehicle to increase Republican influence in state government at a time when the Republican Party is losing influence with the general electorate." The commission would be formed with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans and a fixed number of Decline-to-State and third party representatives, this despite the decline of the Republican party in California, the resurgence of Democrats, and the continued rise of Decline-to-State voters. They also cited the concerns raised by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Association Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund, and William C. Velasquez Institute that the initiative is "a fundamentally flawed attempt at reform" that "fails to protect the interests of minority voters." Indeed, nothing in the initiative demands in any way that the 14 members of the commission reflect California's gender, racial, or geographic diversity. The leaders' opposition follows in the wake of the California Democratic Party's opposition to the measure, where concerns over minority rights and the unfair advantage this initiative would give to Republicans led to a comfortable endorsement of the No position. Here's the letter...
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Note: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content. You must be logged in to comment. You may log in or create an account. Actually, Prop 11 makes no sense at all -- it mandates that the party with the most voters has 5 members on the 14-member commission, the second-ranking party also has 5, and all other parties and nonaligned voters have the remaining 4 seats. How is that fair to anybody, under any theory? Laws are badly drafted when they do not hold up to logical examination. In this case, suppose one party had 90 percent of the registered voters, a second party had 5 percent, and all other parties split the rest. Under Prop 11, the party representing 90 percent of the voters would still only have 5 seats on the 14-member commission, while a party representing a fraction as many voters would have just as many -- 5 also. This makes no sense. If the point of Prop 11 is to eliminate legislative influence on redistricting, why does it permit legislators to cut people from the applicant pool? This is illogical, and suggests that Prop 11 is the Frankenstein-like result of a negotiation, rather than a logical approach to districting. Why does Prop 11 call for "communities of interest" to be recognized in districting, but then fail to define the term "communities of interest"? What does it mean? Who knows what the commission would think it means? Summary: Prop 11 is another mess we don't need. Ratings |
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Inaccuracies in article
Posted by: BlueStater2008 on August 01, 2008It's pretty disappointing that Congressional Democrats have chosen to oppose this measure. Once upon a time, we Democrats stood for election reform that was fair and honest, whatever the consequences (for instance a little something called the Civil Rights Movement, which lost us the South but was the right thing to do). The sad thing is that, in this case, redistricting reform would almost certainly help us achieve the 2/3 vote we need in the Legislature to pass taxes and a budget, but instead the party has caved to the interests of its incumbents who'd rather have safe seats (and unrepresentative districts) than any chance of challenge. How else besides gerrymandering do you explain the fact that when Democrats saw a surge in elective victories across the nation in 2006, except in the CA legislature where in the past two elections no seats have changed hands.
Sadly, this article is part of the scare tactics to keep rank-and-file Democrats from supporting something that makes complete sense. Let's look at just one line: "Indeed, nothing in the initiative demands in any way that the 14 members of the commission reflect California's gender, racial, or geographic diversity. " Either this person has never read the initiative or they are blatantly lying. The initiative requires the recruitment of minorities, requires their representation in the pool from which commissioners will be selected, and requires they be present in the ultimately constituted commission. But hey, you be the judge:
8252(a)(1) By January 1 in 2010 and in each year ending in the number zero thereafter, the State Auditor shall initiate an application process, open to all registered California voters in a manner that promotes a diverse and qualified applicant pool.
8252(d) From the applicant pool, the Applicant Review Panel shall select 60 of the most qualified applicants, [which] shall be created on the basis of relevant analytical skills, ability to be impartial and appreciation for California’s diverse demographics and geography.
8252 (g)[Eight of the 14 commissioners are selected at random from the pool. Those 8 then select the 6 remaining commissioners from the pool who] shall be chosen to ensure the commission reflects this State’s diversity, including, but not limited to, racial, ethnic, geographic, and gender diversity.
Full-text: http://yesprop11.org/fs/resource:id/wriqw4q8lj47s3/wriqyyx8agg7vn?_adctlid=v%7Cwritcy0txeobdd%7Cxawq8lpi4o5kn4
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