Eight citizen members of the California Redistricting Commission held their first meeting last Tuesday at the Secretary of State’s offices in Sacramento. The commission so far is made up of 3 Republicans, 3 Democrats and 2 Decline to state voters chosen randomly from a pool of 36 people. Those 36 are the survivors of 120 applicant/semifinalists who were vetted thru the complicated process required by the Voters First Act. Four partisan legislative leaders got to strike two people each from the final pool of applicants. Now the final 8 will chose an additional 6 members from the final pool of 36, to finalize the commission membership at 14. It is all a little like the finals of “Dancing With The Stars,” except Bristol Palin would have been cut by now. Soon the commissioners will begin work on dividing up all of California’s partisan legislative districts based on Census data soon to be provided by the Obama Administration. When they are done, we will really learn what “random” and “nonpartisan” actually mean.
December 10th, 2010 at 12:00 am
I just do not see how any group of Democrats and Republicans, even when equal in numbers, could ever agree on anything. I expect grid lock with each one of them insisting on having their own way.
Using the reality TV theme show reference, I am afraid that this commission will quickly devolve from “Dancing with the Stars” into something more like the lost episodes of “Survivor”.
Additionally, because these new commissioners are to compensated for their time working on this project at a daily rate, what motivation would they have for working themselves out of job?
This will ensure that not only will they copmplete their work at the twelfth hour, they may also figure out a way to delay the process completely and try to extend their compensation period.
Piece work instead of per diem would have ensured prompt performance.
Because many politicians will not be happy with the results, I see endless court challenges by both Congressmen and State legislators.
This is fun and entertaining for these folks.
They should have just put me solely in charge of this..after all, I am fair and balanced.
Trust Me.
December 10th, 2010 at 12:00 am
The people selected are not, for the most part, hard-core political
types. A real attempt was made to avoid that, with a random
selection overseen by the State Auditor, from a list of citizen
activists who applied for the job. Those 8 people are now filling
in the remaining 6 spots, observing the bi-partisan flavor.
There is every expectation they will “follow the numbers” and try
to let the districts conform to population shifts. and keeping
communities together when possible.
The outcome should be a dramatic increase in the number
of genuinely “competitive” districts for legislature and the
U.S. Congress.