From today’s Wall Street Journal Poltiical Diary…
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has revived an idea that his California voters already rejected just two years ago: giving an independent citizens commission the power to draw legislative districts. It’s a noble and useful concept, but the governor’s plan is fatally flawed and wouldn’t represent meaningful reform, even if it serves to spank a legislature that recently spurned his deals on health care and water policy.
Ted Costa, head of the citizen’s lobby People’s Advocate, has been agitating for decades to end the gerrymandered districts that mean California’s elections are almost always a foregone conclusion. But he’s not impressed with Arnold 2.0. "His plan is worse than the current system, and that is saying something," he says. "It’s a sham and a shame."
Mr. Costa’s objections are well-founded. The plan fails to tackle California’s gerrymandering of U.S. Congressional districts because Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted on a special carve-out in conversations with Arnold’s liberal allies, such as Common Cause and the AARP. And the process for picking commission members would also make it too easy for political "ringers" to be packed into the pool of applicants from which members would be chosen.
Worse, the Schwarzenegger initiative would do away with existing rules that require city and county boundaries to be respected, if possible, in any line drawing. These rules may be frequently ignored, but they serve as a legal basis for challenging the most outrageous of gerrymanders. Instead Arnold’s plan would enshrine the nebulous term "communities of interest" as the top priority in drawing district lines. "The Commission will have unchecked power to craft a carefully designed plan to suit their ideological taste," says Roman Buhler, a former redistricting specialist for retired GOP Rep. Bill Thomas.
The governor had promised to consult with Mr. Costa and other conservatives in designing his new redistricting proposal, but there’s woefully little evidence that any such consultation took place. Just as the Governor learned in 2005 that being too confrontational with Democratic legislators didn’t play well with voters, he may be about to learn now that ignoring his base and falsely claiming his plan is true "bipartisan" reform will turn off enough Republicans to ensure its defeat. Mr. Schwarzenegger has seen this movie before: Unwillingness to consult with Republican legislators on his now-stalled universal health care plan was a major factor in its failure too.