Sacramento — There's not much argument over whether legislators should be drawing their own districts. They should not be. That's a given.
The real argument is over whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's alternative, Proposition 77, is the right one. Or is it too convoluted and kind of goofy? Does it overreach? Is it less of a reform than a power grab?
It sort of looks that way.
The aim of Prop. 77 is on target: Take redistricting away from the Legislature.
But then what? That's the dispute.
Traditionally, after every decennial census, the Legislature in California -- as in most states -- redraws legislative and congressional districts based on the new population data.
That's a clear conflict of interest. The legislative majority -- Democrat for 42 of the last 46 years -- always draws the lines to maintain its power.
The 2001 gerrymandering was bipartisan, but particularly self-serving. Democrats and Republicans conspired to draw lines designed to preserve the status quo. Democrats assured themselves of a legislative majority through this decade. Republicans granted President Bush's wish to protect California's 20 GOP House seats, and thus the party's control of Congress.
The outcomes were so rigged that, in the 2004 elections, not one congressional or legislative seat changed parties in California, out of 153 elections.
That's an indefensible system. And it further erodes the public's confidence in our political institutions.
So under pressure, even Democratic lawmakers are pledging to strip themselves of their redistricting power. Very few politicians still are arguing that the Legislature should keep drawing its own maps.
"There's a lot of merit to taking this out of the hands of the Legislature," says Senate leader Don Perata (D-Oakland). "But [Prop. 77] is a joke....
"Our commitment, if 77 goes down, is to fashion a bipartisan solution in a thoughtful way and put it on the ballot next year. This can be done."
Schwarzenegger's proposal would hand over redistricting to a panel of three retired judges, state or federal.
But there's a lot of Rube Goldberg gadgetry. Basically, the state Judicial Council and legislative leaders would team up to select potential panel members and the final three would be drawn out of a hat.
District lines could not cross city and county borders unless necessary for nonpolitical reasons. That's good. But "communities of interest" -- ethnic and socioeconomic groups -- could be splintered into different districts and their power dissipated. That's not good.
