We go to the Sacramento Bee for more evenhanded coverage of state politics than we get from the Los Angeles Times. Three prime examples popped up in our RSS reader this morning.

First, Dan Weintraub quoting John Kurzweil in CPR Online:

California Republicans have spent most of the past decade trying to bring about a revolutionary reversal of direction in the political culture of one of the world’s most powerful and influential political entities with less clear thinking, research, preparation, and attention to detail in execution — and, indeed, with little evidence even of realizing the magnitude of the job they have undertaken — than one typical small businessman would employ in opening a single hamburger stand.

(Kurzweil also says, in talking about recent Republican runs at the governorship,

The truth about these campaigns is, first, that the principles were not always discernible — least of all in Lungren’s case — and that, second, what particularly characterized them all, running like a bright, gleaming thread throughout, is an ad hoc, seat-of-the-pants, cook book (pick your cliché) approach. They showed little imagination, scant attention to the blocking and tackling basics of politics, and less a determination to win than to insure that the hired gun consultants pocketed princely fees for jobs superficially done. Most seem to have been conducted without so much as the rudimentary market research on how to convey our positions and showcase our candidates to their best advantage that any competently-run business would perform before launching an even moderately ambitious new project.

To which we can add … nothing. It’s spot on.)

In another piece, Dan Walters writes that California is not blue, but purple:

… Since (the 1970s), there has been a steady erosion of Democratic voter strength in California while Republicans have maintained a consistent share in the mid-30 percent range. Clearly, Democrats’ registration losses have not translated into Republican gains, but into a fast-growing independent sector. Indeed, the margin between the two major parties - eight percentage points - is about as small as it’s been since the Great Depression.

There’s also been a massive redistribution of voter strength. The coastal urban areas have become more Democratic while the faster-growing inland counties - dubbed “Edge Cities” by some - and rural areas have become more Republican. Republicans, in fact, now claim 37 counties, a huge increase from just one in 1976.

These trends drove a wedge between statewide politics and those of legislative and congressional districts - a wedge that became even stronger when leaders of both parties enacted a gerrymandered redrawing of those districts five years ago. … The scheme disenfranchised the growing numbers of independent voters by making November elections all but meaningless while empowering the most conservative Republicans and the most liberal Democrats through their dominance of party primary elections.

… Independents may be frozen out of legislative and congressional elections, but they dominate statewide contests. The narrowing of the registration gap between the two major parties means that both have similarly sized bases of loyal voters, giving the independents, now nearly 20 percent of likely voters, the final word.

And in today’s column, Walters follows up on fixing the gerrymander with:

… An exhaustive new study of California redistricting by the University of California’s Institute of Governmental Studies - directed by a one-time redistricting consultant to the Legislature’s dominant Democrats - concludes that plans drawn without regard to partisan impact would create a substantial number of competitive districts, i.e. those that could conceivably be won by either party.

The study, co-directed by Bruce Cain and drawing on the institute’s extensive database, found that about a dozen congressional districts and, depending on the criteria, one to two dozen of the Assembly’s 80 districts could be competitive without violating the other redistricting criteria, such as compactness and protection of minority rights.

As Walters points out, this won’t lead to a Republican legislature, but to one with fewer jihadists from both sides. And we think that would be a good thing for both the institution of the Legislature and for the people of California.

Technorati Tags: 2006 Election, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, LA Times, LAT, Los Angeles Times, politics

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 at 12:34 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under California Schemin'. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.