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 (August 12th LAT.com). The brief order, issued by a 4-2 vote, ended a month-long legal battle between supporters of the Proposition 77 initiative and Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a Democrat who recently dropped out of the race for governor.

The redistricting measure requires that a panel of retired judges draw the legislative boundaries of state lawmakers, U.S. representatives and members of the state Board of Equalization. Schwarzenegger says lawmakers currently draw district lines in a way that unfairly protects incumbents from competition. Even a cursory review of the resulting districts shows the process to be gerrymandering at its very worst.

Proposition 77 has become increasing important to Gov. Schwarzenegger as its ups & downs have played out in the press as proxies on his leadership. Below is how the Los Angeles Times reported over the last week on Prop 77’s legal challenges. In each case the LAT made it clear that the proposition’s failure was Schwarzenegger’s failure. (emphasis below has been added)

August 6th: “Judges Divided Over Redistricting Measure”

 SACRAMENTO — 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.

August 10th: “Justices Bar Redistricting Effort”

SACRAMENTO — 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.

August 12th: “Tinkerbell’s Last Chance”

THE SWEEPING REFORM of government that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced in January is now a sliver of its former self (just like the governor’s approval ratings). When Californians vote in the November special election that Schwarzenegger called, they’ll find not a coherent package but a grab bag of initiatives rushed onto the ballot by special interests.

It’s a dreary prospect, made more so this week with an appeals court decision that Proposition 77, which would take the drawing of political districts out of politicians’ hands, must be removed from the ballot. The governor’s redistricting initiative was the election’s sole bright spot. It would have accomplished a true public service, encouraging more political competition and more responsive government. Unfortunately, its careless supporters sent different language for the attorney general’s approval than they used on their signature-gathering initiatives.

To the Times credit, the reversal of this situation by the California Supreme Court was indeed reported as a victory of the governor and to a lesser degree a failure of the attorney general. That said, we hope this marks the end of this measure being viewed primarily as a proxy on the governor and that the focus moves to the merits of the proposition. If there ever was a populist measure, this is it.  Allowing the legislature to set its own districting is a process that is simply undemocratic.

For example, in the last redistricting in 2001, Republican and Democratic lawmakers struck a gentlemen’s agreement to draw new districts to protect the existing balance of power. Many political experts called those districts a major reason why not one of 153 seats in the Legislature or the state’s congressional delegation changed party hands in the last general election. This is exactly the smoke-filled back room politics that has no place in modern politics.

Congratulations to the California Supreme Court for approving the measure and for the Times on how it covered this last chapter (though don’t get Independent Sources going on other aspects of their coverage of the governor).

For detailed information on the Court’s ruling we suggest SoCal Law Blog.

Technorati tags: prop 77 schwarzenegger redistricting

This entry was posted on Friday, August 12th, 2005 at 10:40 pm by Insider and is filed under 2005 Initiatives, California Schemin', Los Angeles Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.