Kaleefornya

California is ungovernable in its current form. The legislature is safe, and severely term-limited, so that once anybody gets to know how things work in Sacramento, they have to leave. Plus they're from the extremes of both parties. The initiative system is so easy to use, with virtually no barrier to entry, that legislation is permanently under review, since if something fails in the legislature it can go on the ballot without delay. Budgets require a super-majority, which forces the legislature to actually work together, but because they are not pressured by their constituents to do so, they don't. Thanks to selfish ballot measures like Prop. 13 (which forces property taxes to be exceedingly low), the government is incapable of raising enough money to pay for services unless there is an extreme boom like the tech sector gold rush. The special interests, mindful of California's status as a bellweather state for the nation in terms of policy, put things on the ballot they know sensible citizens will pass (greenhouse gas emissions, stem cell research) when in fact there's no money to pay for them unless you borrow up to your eyeballs. Therefore, services get hacked, deficits go up anyway, everybody yells at everybody, and the state looks more and more like Arkansas every day.

At least a sensible redistricting plan will alleviate a little of the ungovernable nature of things. However, I for one don't trust Ahnold to get it done sensibly (i.e. nonpartisan). Also, he couldn't wait for it until 2010, when the next census comes out, because he'll be out of office by then. So he'll try to ram it through early, which doesn't bode well, since that in itself is in violation of the state constitution.