CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 18, 2010 | George Skelton, Capitol Journal
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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
July 15, 2009 | Maeve Reston
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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 30, 2008 | GEORGE SKELTON
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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 14, 2008 | Nancy Vogel, Times Staff Writer
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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 9, 2008 | GEORGE SKELTON
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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 28, 2008 | GEORGE SKELTON
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.