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Monday, Mar 18, 2024
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Trading longer terms for balanced districts not the greatest idea

You may have read recently that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to do a bit of horse-trading with the Legislature. Quid pro quo, if you will.

The governor has told lawmakers he is willing to support extension of term limits if the lawmakers are willing to give up the power to redistrict legislative districts every 10 years.

If the lawmakers go along and a deal is done, an initiative to change term limits would appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.

If passed, Assembly members would then be able to serve 12 years, an increase from the current six. (But they would not be eligible to run for the Senate.) Senators would be able to serve 12 years, an increase from the current eight.

In exchange for supporting the governor, lawmakers would agree to support a proposal floating around the Capitol that would have the Legislature appointing 11 residents to redraw district maps after the 2010 Census.

Theoretically, the impartial panel would carve up the state free of the partisan politics that drive the process now.

I say bad idea.

The governor is dealing with the devil here, or more accurately, 120 devils , 40 in the Senate and 80 in the Assembly.

The crux of the problem is the structural sleaze that permeates Sacramento , “the-that’s-the-way-it-is-and-there-is-little-we-can-do-about-it-syndrome.”

The Democrats , with the help of badly outnumbered Republicans , have so gerrymandered legislative districts that the outcome in any , and almost every , election is guaranteed.

Such contrivance puts the machinations of New York’s famed, corrupt Tammany Hall to shame.

Rigging districts is better than rigging votes, because it’s legal and far less labor-intensive than stuffing ballot boxes.

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s willingness to horse-trade is understandable.

He is running scared as he gears up his campaign for re-election this fall. He was badly shaken in March when his government reform initiatives went down to defeat in a bitter campaign.

We need deep cleansing in the Legislature. We don’t need Band-Aids.

I’d transform the Legislature into a true citizens group, not an imperium of overpaid, outsized egos. I’d strip lawmakers of most of their benefits, and reduce their pay.

Our representatives should be first among equals , the equals here being the residents of the state of California.

We don’t need professional politicians who always have their eyes on the next rung of the ladder.

With such dramatic reforms in place, we wouldn’t need to redistrict or extend term limits. I think most of us would agree the current limits are more than sufficient time to get the job done.

Under the current system of redistricting, does it matter whether party members serve six, eight or 12 years?

We’re in a crisis. Something needs to be done. Not one of the 153 legislative districts in the state changed hands in the 2004 elections. Not a single one.

We should be outraged that our elected representatives have so rigged districts to favor incumbents to such a ludicrous degree.

Of course we’re not the only state facing such a crisis in democracy. Extreme partisan-ism is pandemic.

Based on a case from Texas, U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled a few weeks back that there’s nothing illegal about one party drawing district boundaries to maximize its electoral advantage.

Which underscores a bigger point I am trying to make. In this decision, the justices exhibited just the kind of intellectual dishonesty that permeates today’s political thinking.

What happened to fairness, and balance, and moral behavior?

Is rigging fair? Balanced? Moral?

The intellectual dishonesty has become so commonplace that we’ve accepted it. And with equanimity.

Everyone is represented in Sacramento but the everyman and the everywoman , the guys and gals on the street who don’t bother to vote anymore because they don’t think their votes count. Because they don’t.

Gov. Schwarzenegger, I’d rethink this one.


Thomas York is the editor of the

San Diego Business Journal.

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