Election Proposal

It was a sad day for the City of Santa Monica when Councilman Alan Katz produced his at-large numbered seats "reform" proposal. Such "reforms" are usually sponsored by the Ku Klux Klan, racial and ethnic bigots and political machines seeking to suppress grass-root candidates. It is absurd that Mr. Katz, a man of good intentions who is clearly not a bigot, should make such a ridiculous proposal. It was shameful that five members of our City Council would even entertain this foolish notion.

Los Angeles County supervisors rejected a bid Tuesday from several Santa Clarita Valley school districts and a water district hoping to consolidate elections in a bid to avoid the kind of voting rights lawsuits that other local governments have been hit with. The measure failed on a 2-2 vote, with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas abstaining. County election officials opposed the change, arguing that shifting the districts to November even-year elections would exceed their ability to conduct elections.

Government officials of El Salvador on Tuesday rejected as "unconstitutional" a key demand by the country's Marxist guerrillas for a six-month postponement of an upcoming presidential election as a condition for rebel participation in the balloting and their acceptance of its results.

The Egyptian army began Saturday to reassert control around Tahrir Square, while government officials attempted to negotiate an end to the crisis with opposition leaders. Hundreds of soldiers moved into a small side street leading to the square past the Egyptian Museum where the most intense fighting between pro- and anti-government forces has taken place. Angry protesters confronted the soldiers at both ends of the street, but for the first time the army appeared to have sufficient numbers to maintain control.

Jordan's King Hussein today endorsed President Bush's efforts to revive the Middle East peace process but withheld specific comment on Israel's plan for elections in the occupied territories, a major feature of the U.S. approach. Winding up an hourlong meeting at the White House, Hussein said Bush was "in a unique position" to help end the Arab-Israeli conflict, adding: "I can assure you that I fully support you in all your efforts in this regard." Hussein pointedly did not mention Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's proposal for polls to choose a Palestinian delegation to negotiate with the Jewish state an interim period of limited self-rule.

King Hussein of Jordan, ignoring an American request to endorse Israel's West Bank and Gaza Strip election proposal, told President Bush on Wednesday that Middle East peace "can neither be negotiated nor achieved without PLO participation." Hussein praised Bush as "the right leader in the right office at the right time" to bring a settlement to the troubled region. But he did not budge from his position that negotiations can be conducted only through a U.N.-sponsored conference in which the Palestine Liberation Organization would play a prominent role.

The Bush Administration has muted its criticism of Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to avoid playing into the hands of right-wing extremists in Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's own Likud Party, well-informed sources said Saturday. Shamir faces a showdown at a party convention, scheduled July 5, over his proposal for Palestinian elections in the occupied territories. Ultranationalist critics, led by former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, oppose the plan, which they say will ultimately lead to creation of an independent Palestinian state.

The Bush Administration is pressing for details of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Palestinian election proposal, Israeli officials said Thursday. They said the Americans are reminding the Israelis of U.S. insistence that Israel give up occupied land in return for overall peace. In a letter delivered 10 days ago, Secretary of State James A. Baker III requested that the Israeli election proposal include a "significant link" to a final outcome of peace negotiations, the Israeli officials said.

The City Council has shelved plans for a special election on two controversial issues, the rezoning of the Azusa Greens Country Club and the direct election of the mayor. Johnny E. Johnson, owner of the country club, and opponents of his plan to develop the property for housing and industry submitted rival measures for the ballot, but the council on Monday refused to call an election.

Re "Electoral college effort lags," Dec. 1 The Republican Party's effort to amend the California Constitution by initiative to require that electoral votes in presidential elections be based on gerrymandered congressional district lines is blatantly unconstitutional. Article II, Section 1, Part 2 of the U.S.

In a measure of how quickly its options are shrinking, the United States is about to embrace an economic theory that was widely thought for most of the last generation to have been discredited: the idea that great bursts of deficit-funded government expenditure can jolt an economy back to growth. And the nation is poised to put this theory to the test on a scale untried in peacetime by any developed country on Earth.

Re "Electoral college effort lags," Dec. 1 The Republican Party's effort to amend the California Constitution by initiative to require that electoral votes in presidential elections be based on gerrymandered congressional district lines is blatantly unconstitutional. Article II, Section 1, Part 2 of the U.S.

Hoping to defuse a potential election year issue, the Schwarzenegger administration today will announce a plan to cut the price of prescription drugs for uninsured Californians. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's health and human services secretary, Kim Belshe, said she is set to release a proposal aimed at making discount prescription drugs available to up to 5 million people. Drug manufacturers would be invited to take part in the program voluntarily.

President Bush unveiled a $2.4-trillion election-year budget Monday that promised a new effort to limit the growth of government but still embraced deficit spending for years to come. The budget, which provides a window into what Bush would do if elected to a second term, calls for continuing the robust expansion of defense and homeland security spending that has been the hallmark of his administration.

A legislative committee approved a plan Thursday to give local voters the choice of repealing or keeping term limits on the senators and Assembly members they send to the Legislature. The action by the Assembly Elections Committee was the latest--and perhaps one of the strangest--twist in an uphill struggle by some lawmakers to rewrite portions of Proposition 140, the 1990 initiative overwhelmingly approved by voters to create term limits. None of those reform measures has succeeded.

Anaheim is considering revision or repeal of a tough campaign-finance law that a special prosecutor used last year to charge the mayor and two City Council members with criminal campaign abuses. The City Council on Tuesday scheduled a workshop for May 4 to discuss the issue, which has divided its members for four months. "We really need more time," said Councilwoman Shirley McCracken, leader of the effort to repeal the city's campaign-reform law.

Two major election-reform proposals, which would require the election of City Council members from districts and limit the mayor to two four-year terms, have drawn opposition from Mayor Daniel H. Young. The mayor said he was leaning against Councilman John Acosta's request that the council place the items on the November ballot because they already have been publicly discussed and voted on in recent years.

Los Angeles County supervisors rejected a bid Tuesday from several Santa Clarita Valley school districts and a water district hoping to consolidate elections in a bid to avoid the kind of voting rights lawsuits that other local governments have been hit with. The measure failed on a 2-2 vote, with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas abstaining. County election officials opposed the change, arguing that shifting the districts to November even-year elections would exceed their ability to conduct elections.

Orange County's future sheriff proposes to speed the expansion of Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange and to rent its beds to out-of-town agencies, a plan he says will pay for itself. Sheriff-elect Mike Carona, who will take office in January, said in an interview Saturday that his proposal to build all the approximately 1,000 planned beds now and to import prisoners to fill it would solve the county's problem of how to finance the expansion.

The court-appointed official overseeing the Teamsters' rerun election proposed a major change in election rules that would allow reformers a chance to run a slate of candidates to oppose James P. Hoffa for the union presidency. Michael Cherkasky asked a federal court to allow candidates to switch political slates for the election this summer, saying that was the only fair way to proceed with Teamsters President Ron Carey out of the race and Hoffa's campaign finances under investigation.