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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