Prop. 11 foes waging Orwellian campaign

SACRAMENTO — The award for the most cynical, mendacious, Orwellian campaign of the state election season goes to the opponents of Proposition 11, the redistricting reform initiative.

Prop. 11 would strip away the Legislature's power to draw its own districts, which means the authority for lawmakers to select their own voters. It's a blatant conflict of interest.

The once-a-decade chore would be turned over to a 14-member independent citizens commission.

The ballot measure is sponsored by a long list of nonpartisan good government groups -- Common Cause, AARP, the League of Women Voters, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, California Forward -- and backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with $2.5 million of his political money.

Some Democrats also support the measure. They include former state Controller Steve Westly, former Gov. Gray Davis and former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg. But most of the current Democratic hierarchy is terrified of the initiative.

After giving up on the Legislature's ever surrendering the power to shape districts -- despite its leaders' promises to do so -- the reform groups collected signatures and placed Prop. 11 on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Let's cut to the chase:

* If you believe that legislators should be held accountable at election time and face more than token opposition, Prop. 11 is a must. If you're thinking that Sacramento requires some reforming to become more responsive to California's needs, here's an excellent place to start.

* Conversely, if you believe that Sacramento is cruising along just fine and doesn't need much tinkering, vote against Prop. 11. But then you'd probably have been living in a coma.

The only intellectually honest reason to vote against Prop. 11 is that you're a true blue Democrat who toes the party line in every election and believes we'd all be much better off if Democrats totally controlled the Legislature. Democrats then would retain the power to gerrymander districts in 2011 and strengthen their majorities in the next decade.

Of course, Democrats did have that opportunity in 2001 and botched it. They conspired with Republicans to rig the districts -- and thus the elections -- to protect incumbents and the political status quo. General-election competition was kept to a bare minimum. Since then, only four seats have changed parties in 495 California legislative and congressional races.