Los Angeles Times (4/28): Gov. Relents on Sped-Up Remapping

From the Los Angeles Time
Dated Thursday April 28

Gov. Relents on Sped-Up Remapping
Schwarzenegger drops a demand that political districts be redrawn by next year. Some now call special election unlikely, but ballot effort goes on.
By Robert Salladay and Jordan Rau, Times Staff Writers

Retreating from another proposal for swift change in California government, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday dropped his demand that the state's legislative and congressional districts be redrawn by next year.

Lawmakers and political analysts interpreted the move as a sign that the governor would back away from a planned special election this fall on a wide-ranging government overhaul. Schwarzenegger denied this.

For months, he has insisted that California needs to immediately change its method of electing politicians, calling for independent judges — rather than legislators — to draw district boundaries. In February, he and his aides said there would be no compromise on the issue.

But at a choreographed "town hall" meeting Wednesday in a Fontana steel mill, where the governor talked with a friendly audience of about 300 steelworkers, business leaders and politicians, he was much less urgent. He said he hoped that negotiations with Democratic lawmakers would "work all this out, all the dates, should it be 2006, should it be 2008, should it be 2010."

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This is a victory for our team.

in California (with help from his new Repug SOS) and that he no longer thinks he needs redistricting to turn our state red.


:kick:

This is awesome. We can and wil redraw the districts after the next census, and correct the problems from the last re-draw. But it won't be a Republican Governor in charge by then, judging by the latest poll numbers. Sweet!

What the victory for our team is simply that Arnold won't add a DeLay-like mid-census redistricting plan to a proposal to change how redistricting is done. Instead of having politicians draw the lines, retired judges will do it.

The voters seem to like the idea of taking the matter out of hands of politicians. I'm not sure retired judges would be any better, but I know the proposal will pass.

There really is no good way to reapportionment. That being the case, there is no hurry to redraw district lines. We can change the way it's done and leave the current boundaries where they are.