Schwarzenegger also said he'd like to see California return to an open primary. Ours was declared unconstitutional after both parties fought it in court. But the U.S. Supreme Court in March approved an open primary in the state of Washington, in which there are no party nominations. Candidates from all political stripes run on the same primary ballot. The two top vote-getters -- regardless of party -- advance to the general election. This forces candidates to run more to the middle.
"Between the redistricting and open primaries it would change the whole situation," the governor contended.
And he'd also loosen up term limits.
"Term limits has not worked as far as I'm concerned at all," he said, citing inexperience in budgeting. "Legislators come up to me all the time and say, 'I've only done one budget. . . . I've never done a budget.' "
"Look at Karen," he continued, referring to Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles). "As leader, it's her first budget. I mean, poor girl. She gets thrown into this. . . . It makes it very, very difficult when people start from scratch all the time. . . .
"The good thing is we do have a lot of smart people in this building. It's all about the political system."
Good people working in a bad system -- some of it, the gerrymandering, self-perpetuated by Democrats.
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george.skelton@latimes.com
