Reapportionment

A Republican state senator proposed political reform legislation Wednesday that hasn't got a snowball's chance in a Sacramento summer. And that's too bad, because it could cure some serious ills. The proposed state constitutional amendment would, in one package: * Repeal legislative term limits, but not until 2016. Any benefit to current legislators would be diluted and delayed far into the future. * Strip the Legislature of its power to draw district maps, a flagrant conflict of interest.

In his remaining months in office, outgoing Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez hopes he can leave a long-lasting mark on the Legislature with new term limits, a ban on fundraising during key periods and a new way of drawing state voting districts. He and the Assembly's minority leader, Mike Villines (R-Clovis), are discussing a constitutional amendment package that could be placed on the November ballot by the Legislature if two-thirds of lawmakers agree.

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.

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 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 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 new dynamic in Washington, with Californian Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, threatens to thwart an effort by state political leaders to overhaul the way voting districts are drawn. Fresh from their victories in the November election, Democrats in Congress don't want to risk their fragile majority. Many Republicans don't want their relatively safe seats threatened either. Their opposition promises to crimp an effort by Gov.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez defied his counterpart in Congress on Wednesday by proposing that a bipartisan government watchdog commission redraw both legislative and congressional districts.

California's congressional Republicans united Tuesday in support of independent redistricting, leaving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats as holdouts on a nonpartisan redrawing of the state's House districts. All 19 Republican representatives signed a letter urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to include Congress, along with the Legislature, in pending plans to revamp the way political boundaries are determined.

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature get anything else done this year, it most likely will be -- and should be -- political redistricting reform. Redistricting reform is the path to logical term-limit flexibility. And both are badly needed in Sacramento, as the recent budget fiasco showed. Republicans long have crusaded for redistricting reform: zapping the Democratic-dominated Legislature's power to draw its own districts.