After reading an article this morning in the San Francisco Chronicle filled with quotes from Senate President Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez where they announce redistricting reform "dead" for the February ballot, I wanted to provide the Governor with this link.
Governor, please keep your promise — HERE.
Perata and Nunez are scoundrels – politicans who are set on one thing only, preserving their own power. They want to extend their time in office by blowing apart term limits, and they are walking away from their commitment for a fair redistricting process because this, too, would diminish the power of legislative bosses.
Here is the excerpt from the article:
As late as Tuesday afternoon, Schwarzenegger planned to call a special session to deal with the redistricting effort to go along with other special sessions on health care and water issues. But he gave up on the effort when state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, refused to play along.
"If they do redistricting in a special session, I am not going to take it up," Perata said Tuesday. "There is urgency in water and health care. There is no urgency in redistricting."
But there could be some urgency in those redistricting discussions, at least for Perata. Schwarzenegger has said in the past that he will not support the term limits initiative on the February ballot unless it’s paired with redistricting as part of a political reform package.
The term limits measure would cut the amount of time legislators can spend in office from the current 14 years to 12 years, but allow them to spend their entire careers in the Assembly or Senate, if they choose. If the initiative doesn’t pass in February, the termed-out Perata would be forced to give up his state Senate seat.
"Don Perata is going to wake up tomorrow and realize he just ended his legislative career," said Dan Schnur, a former GOP consultant and current co-chair of the bipartisan Voices of Reform group, which backs changes in redistricting. "He is the one with the most to lose by not dealing with redistricting."