Reapportionment

The Federal Election Commission ruled Thursday that members of Congress are free to raise unlimited sums to support or oppose California ballot measures -- a potentially serious blow to one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's key initiatives. The ruling is likely to intensify the expected flood of campaign advertising aimed at California voters this fall.

The California Supreme Court handed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a major victory Friday, putting back on the Nov. 8 ballot his initiative to change how legislative district lines are drawn. The brief order, issued by a 4-2 vote, ends a monthlong legal battle between supporters of the initiative, Proposition 77, and Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer. The attorney general had won two rounds in lower courts.

In another setback to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" agenda, an appeals court on Tuesday blocked his redistricting initiative from the November special election, ruling that supporters of the measure violated state election law in the way they put it on the ballot. The ruling is a victory for state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, who sued last month to keep the measure off the ballot and now has won in two courts.

A panel of three state appeals court justices appeared divided Friday over whether to allow a ballot proposition that is a key element of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's agenda to remain on the Nov. 8 special election ballot. With the printing of 12 million voter guides scheduled to begin Aug. 15, the 3rd District Court of Appeal is expected to rule by Tuesday. Any decision is likely to be appealed quickly to the state Supreme Court.

As lawyers scrambled to resurrect one of his most important voter initiatives, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that he would not cancel the Nov. 8 special election. "I will continue moving forward exactly as I have been," Schwarzenegger said at an event in the Capitol that encouraged children to eat healthy foods. "We need reform."

Delivering a substantial blow to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" agenda, a judge Thursday struck from the special election ballot an initiative that would have wrested away the Legislature's power to draw political districts. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian ruled that the initiative should not have been placed on the Nov. 8 ballot because the wording circulated on voter petitions had not been approved according to law. The decision was a victory for Atty. Gen.

Democratic lawmakers announced Wednesday that they intend to hold a hearing next month to ask what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's staff knew about technical problems with a redistricting initiative he supports. They called the joint Assembly and Senate hearing in response to disclosures that Schwarzenegger's legal secretary knew of the problems at least several days before notifying the secretary of state, who oversees the initiative process.

Nobody except Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has had a bigger impact on the current initiative wars than Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer. He has scared off a proposed public pension overhaul. He has titled a spending cap proposal with words that strategically help opponents, led by teachers unions. Now he is asking a court to remove from the ballot a political redistricting measure. The Democrat is widely accused by conservatives of playing politics. Lockyer emphatically denies it.

Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer asked a court Friday to remove an initiative backed by the governor from the November special election ballot, saying the petitions voters signed were "substantially different" from what the attorney general had approved. The initiative, sanctioned for the ballot by more than 950,000 people who signed the petitions, would change how congressional and legislative districts are drawn, shifting the job from lawmakers to a panel of judges.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is facing yet another problem over one of his high-profile initiatives: The version that petition-signers placed on the ballot is different from the one state officials approved for circulation. The problem emerged three weeks ago in the bid to change how district boundaries are drawn for elected officials. The governor wants a panel of retired judges to establish the lines, potentially altering the balance of power in Sacramento.