CA Special Election - No on 77

This is another in a series of posts about the California Special Election coming up on November 8.

I'm all for redistricting. Nationwide, nonpartisan, georgraphic models. Go for it. But not the way it's being attempted in Proposition 77. I can understand the views of people like Kos, a reform-minded Democrat who seeks to break the Incumbency Protection Racket that current law proscribes. Right now legislators draw their own Congressional districts based on Census data once a decade. That obviously opens the process up to gerrymandering. A nonpartisan solution by a retired panel of judges sounds like a good idea. It's the timing and the technicalities of this Proposition that worries me.

Under Prop. 77, which would take effect immediately, the districts will be redrawn and put into place for the June 2006 primary (and who knows if they can get all the complex issues surrounding redistricting resolved in time for that). The voters will not have a chance to approve or reject the new districts until November 2006. If they reject them, whoever was elected under those districts REMAINS elected. In addition, if they're rejected, the judges go back to the drawing board to redraw them again. But the people never get to vote on the districts until they're already in use. That's wrong. Voters in CA have the right to reject redistricting plans; under this they would conceivably NEVER have to approve one, and it wouldn't make any difference.

In addition, a possible court challenge would move this redistricting to 2008, 2 years before the new Census. So it could be in place for exactly one election cycle, at enormous cost to the taxpayers. This will be a sinkhole for the budget.

Also, under this plan, politicians continue to "select" (that's the word used in the proposition) the judges. Isn't this a convenient smokescreen for politicians to simultaneously achieve their incumbent status AND get to hide behind the judges they select to cement that incumbency? Perhaps, it's an open question.

The political ramifications to redistricting California are unclear. It may end up benefiting Democrats or Republicans. I'm all for a workable solution to stop gerrymandering nationwide. This plan isn't it. If the vote was in 2010, I'd almost be inclned to say that the benefits outweigh the costs. But not now. Vote NO on Prop. 77.