SCA 10, a vehicle to move into a conference committee the resumption of the legislative discussion of reforming the corrupt present system of redistricting, passed off the Assembly floor today. Any redistricting proposal would likely be geared for the post-2010 census and the 2012 election. It also contained the term limit extension/restructure discussion that has been tossed about for some time and more so lately, and which may or may not be joined together with the redistricting proposal. The conference committee would be the last minute shot at doing something on this November ballot on these issues. Of course, any product of the committee would still have to come back to both houses for a 2/3 approval and the Governor’s signature to be placed before the voters.
Having a discussion on these issues is fine, more specifically on the corrupt way districts are now drawn. I’m much less excited about the idea of legislators initiating talks on fiddling with their own term limits. It seems that if there was a lot of clamoring for longer or different term limits from the public, who will have to be asked to vote on it, that maybe the public should bring it to the voters, not the ‘self serve’ method. It’s too late for members termed out in 2006, but the 2008, ’10 and ’12 termers could see the new term structure. Desire for that seems to be driving this issue.
This conference committee will have to hustle, as the moving target deadline seems to be the end of next week. It ought to be fascinating and entertaining.
