(CA) Governor, Democrats spar over redistricting

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Governor, Democrats spar over redistricting

By John Marelius
STAFF WRITER

February 25, 2005

SACRAMENTO – Saying California's political districts "look like they were drawn by a drunk with an Etch-a-Sketch," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday emphatically rejected a Democratic overture to avert a redistricting war this year.

At a conference on legislative reform here yesterday morning, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat, said what he had only hinted at in the past: that legislative Democrats were willing to relinquish the power to redraw congressional and legislative district boundaries to an independent commission after the 2010 census.

Schwarzenegger denounced that as "ludicrous" and insisted he wants the lines redrawn before the 2006 elections. The governor said he will sponsor a citizen initiative to put the proposal on a special election ballot this fall if the Legislature fails to act.

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The current lines, drawn by the Legislature after the 2000 census, have been widely condemned as a bipartisan conspiracy to protect incumbents at the expense of electoral competition.

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Assemblyman Tom Umberg, a Santa Ana Democrat and chairman of the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee, contended that Schwarzenegger's interest in the issue stems from his inability to elect any new Republicans to the Legislature last year.

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