Anti Prop 77 stuff

Sacramento -- A ballot measure committee supporting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's initiative to redraw California's political boundaries has returned $1.75 million in donations, after opponents accused the governor of violating the same election laws he charged them with breaking just a week earlier.

more here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/07/BAG7IF40D21.DTL

If Proposition 77 passes in November, California would become the 13th state to put an independent commission in charge of drawing its political lines. But that's about the only thing the redistricting plan would have in common with the rest of the nation.

"We looked at those other plans and we didn't like them,'' said Ted Costa of People's Advocates, who helped write the ballot initiative. "If ours passes, we'll be better. We want to be a model."

At a Los Angeles legislative hearing last month, Tim Storey of the National Conference of State Legislatures explained what makes California's proposed method of drawing the lines for Assembly, state Senate and congressional districts so different.

No other state puts its plan in the hands of retired judges, he said, and only Arkansas has as few as three members on its commission.

more here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/07/BAG7IF3FUA1.DTL

There wasn't a single real argument the incumbants could come up with so they've resorted to vague fear mongering.

This part sounds good though.
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Prop. 77 proposes a complicated mechanism to keep the new panel relatively free of partisan politics.

The state Judicial Council randomly selects 24 retired judges from a list of those willing to serve on the commission. The four legislative leaders, two Republicans and two Democrats, then each choose three judges, who have to be from an opposing party. Each legislator then gets to veto one of the remaining 12 judges. The three members of the redistricting commission are chosen at random from the eight judges left on the list, although at least one member has to be a Democrat and one a Republican.