Is a constitutional convention in California's future?
With the state's fiscal woes mounting and Sacramento seemingly frozen in place, a group of California leaders has proposed a constitutional convention as a way to fix the Golden State's deeply entrenched structural problems.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, June 26, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 33 Editorial pages Desk 1 inches; 48 words Type of Material: Correction
Constitutional convention: A June 22 Op-Ed article discussed three ways to choose delegates to a proposed convention: appointment, election and random selection. The California Constitution allows only for election; the other two methods would have to be established as part of an initiative that sets up the convention.
Perhaps the most important question about a constitutional convention is: Who would be the delegates charged with designing California 2.0, and how would they be chosen?
There are three basic ways to select such delegates: Appoint them, elect them or randomly select them. Each has its pros and cons. There is no perfect method, maybe only a "least worst" one.
APPOINTED DELEGATES: Some people believe this will ensure that the best and brightest are picked.
That sounds nice in theory, but who would do the appointing? The Legislature? The governor? Some have proposed that a bunch of good-government groups should be picked to lock themselves in a room and roll up their sleeves. But who would pick them?
Appointing delegates raises fundamental questions about the independence and legitimacy of the delegates: Will they be seen as beholden to the same political leaders and special interests that are perceived as already controlling the political process?
And there would be no guarantee that appointed delegates would result in a convention as diverse as the state itself. It seems instructive that of the 14 states that automatically call a constitutional convention every 10 or 20 years, none appoint delegates.
ELECTED DELEGATES: Supporters of this method say it would confer legitimacy because the delegates would be democratically selected by voters. And it is a process familiar to voters and the media, especially if it uses existing legislative districts.
But if we elect the delegates just as we elect the Legislature, the results likely would mirror a Legislature widely viewed as a failure.
State Assembly districts are huge, each with more than 450,000 people. Reaching that many voters would require significant financial resources, giving an advantage to candidates who have access to money, organized special interests and political party support.
Sound familiar?
That scenario, along with the fact that elections would not necessarily guarantee that the delegates would reflect the state's diversity, could undermine the convention's credibility.
