Reapportionment

A Republican reapportionment expert who heads a California think tank has emerged as President Bush's leading candidate to run the federal Census Bureau and preside over the pivotal 1990 census, congressional sources said Monday. Alan Heslop, director of the Rose Institute in Claremont, is in line to take over the bureau as it prepares to conduct the nationwide population count that will be used, among other things, to draw new boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts.

Daniel Mintz recently had a chance to see California's new election system up close, and it was an eye-opener. An official with the political organization Move On.org, Mintz was in California to work with his group's favored candidates, including a Democrat running for a Ventura County congressional seat. In previous years, Mintz's contender, well financed and awash in endorsements and party backing, might have brushed past three other Democrats on June 5 to win a place on the November ballot.

It's turkey season in Mississippi, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was tramping through the countryside here this month in pursuit of the big birds. His hunting partners, as usual, included Charles W. Pickering Sr., the federal judge who President Bush recently elevated to the U.S. court of appeals; and his son, Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering, a four-term Republican member of Congress. For turkey hunters, this country is unrivaled.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and a veteran of reapportionment battles, called the proposed new maps of congressional districts released Friday the "worst-case scenario for Latinos in California.’’ "These maps in no way reflect the population shifts of the past 10 years that were documented by the 2010 census," he said. "Latinos accounted for 90% of the state’s population increase. When you look at the combined number of districts statewide that would be effective Latino districts, we actually end up with less than what we have now. " He said the maps link "the poorest communities of the city of Los Angeles with the billionaires of the Westside," adding that the maps have "thrown communities of interest out the window" and that the proposal "empowers the Westside of Los Angeles at the expense of the central part of the city and the Eastside.

San Clemente I agree wholeheartedly with Stephen Barnett's commentary titled "A Padlock for California's Democracy" (Sept. 21). The biggest issue in this year's governor's race is not the death penalty, the environment or education--it is reapportionment. And the biggest concern for Californians is the impact the next governor will have on the 1990 reapportionment process. Clearly, one of the main reasons that we have seen such an abysmal record of accomplishment in our state Legislature is that the 1980 gerrymandered reapportionment left incumbents so entrenched, so safe in their jobs that many have become deaf to the need of their constituents.

Re "Drawing the line," editorial, Feb. 27 The editorial on reapportionment was a few steps short of the needed journey. The problem remains how reapportionment should be accomplished. And your editorial reveals nothing of the intricacies or difficulties of the problem. Saying "let a citizens commission draw the lines" is meaningless because it implies a solution that does not yet exist. A citizens commission (chosen by lot, or by judges or however) probably would lack expertise.

19 congressional seats will change hands, with eight states gaining and 13 states losing representatives. Here's where the battles will be most intense over redrawing of district lines: CALIFORNIA: Republicans, still smarting from the congressional redistricting imposed by Democrats 10 years ago, are positioned to do better with Pete Wilson holding the governorship. Democrats still control the Legislature but are unlikely to match their gain of six U.S. House seats after the 1980 census.

A federal appeals court, rejecting a voting rights challenge by Latinos, cleared the way Wednesday for a March 2 special election to fill a vacant state Senate seat representing the 16th District, which includes part of the Antelope Valley and other Los Angeles County areas. In a 10-page opinion, a panel of the U. S.

More than one-fifth of the state legislators up for reelection this fall apparently have decided to seek other offices or retire, paving the way for a significant shake-up in California's Legislature. Acting to meet Tuesday's deadline for filing notices of intention to run for reelection, 19 members of the 80-member Assembly indicated that they did not plan to seek reelection to their current offices. Four of the 20 members of the state Senate up for election this year have other plans.

The Supreme Court dealt a partial blow to the Clinton administration's plan to use sampling in the next census, ruling Monday that the adjusted population figures may not be used to reapportion congressional seats. The 5-4 decision is expected to cost California one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives during the next decade.

Remember redistricting reform, the effort to strip from legislators the power to choose their own voters? It's the power that leads to gerrymandering or, in effect, lawmakers rigging their own elections. Proposition 11, sponsored by a coalition of nonpartisan good-government groups and heavily funded by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, passed by a thin margin (1.8%) in November 2008. It called for creation of a 14-member independent citizens commission to draw districts for the Legislature and state Board of Equalization.

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Tuesday to redraw neighborhood boundaries to allow an area of about 1,800 homes in Van Nuys to join the more upscale community of Sherman Oaks. The 10-2 vote, which was met with the boisterous cheers of proponents, was the latest in a series of name changes in the San Fernando Valley over the last few decades.

The only argument of substance being raised against Proposition 11 is that taking legislative redistricting away from self-serving legislators would hurt minority communities. But now a nonpartisan think tank debunks that notion. Prop. 11 would strip away the Legislature's power to draw its own districts and turn over the once-a-decade chore to a 14-member independent citizens commission. Its only goal would be to draw sensible, logical districts -- rather than to protect incumbent lawmakers.

The last time the Legislature drew California's voting districts, only a handful of people knew the unmarked offices where the mapmakers toiled. Why the secrecy? To separate those who were drawing the lines from fellow lawmakers' pleas to have a childhood home or a favorite parish included in their new district -- or to exclude the home of a potential challenger.

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.

For Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, nothing better illustrates the evils of legislative gerrymandering -- and the need for Proposition 11 on the November ballot -- than Sacramento's two-month budget stalemate. I'd place California's ridiculous two-thirds majority vote requirement for budget passage higher on the list of culprits that create gridlock. But I wouldn't argue with Schwarzenegger's thesis: Gerrymandering tends to reward extremism in both parties and punish compromise, locking lawmakers into ideological corners.

Re "Power lines," Opinion, July 27 I was the staff director of the state Senate Committee on Elections and Reapportionment from 1971 through 1974 and from 1980 to 1982. Tony Quinn's article on reapportionment blatantly ignores that in 1971, the single "African American ... state Senate seat" he mentions was held by Mervyn M. Dymally of Compton, who, not coincidently, was chairman of the Senate Committee on Elections and Reapportionment. Dymally made a politically costly and successful effort to increase state Senate representation for the Latino population in East Los Angeles, creating a new district entirely within East L.A. Dymally's 1971 reapportionment plan also created a second congressional district to which an African American could be elected and a second state Senate district to which another African American could join Dymally.

Here's an indication of how rotten Democratic-led gerrymandering is in California: A national Democratic organization is branding us one of a "Dirty Dozen" states that has rigged elections and significantly suppressed voter participation. Gerrymandering is the infamous practice of legislators choosing their own voters, rather than allowing voters to fairly choose their elected representatives.