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2005-10-10 Home Front: Politix

CA Prop 77: Removing Redistricting from Legislature Control - What Fun!

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Posted by .com 2005-10-10 04:25|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Hollywierd against wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Gotta love this country.

Posted by 2b 2005-10-10 07:01|| 2005-10-10 07:01|| Front Page Top

#2 This is actually a pretty big deal. If it passes, it will make a major change to p[olitics in California. It will be bigger than prop 13.

Posted by Elmavimble Ebbarong4728 2005-10-10 08:30|| 2005-10-10 08:30|| Front Page Top

#3 EE - That's what I thought, too. I hadn't heard about Prop 77, before. As a former resident, 3 long yrs, of Laficornia, this could be monumental. The majority of the population is sane, as statewide proposition votes show -- you just wouldn't know it given their politicians. This might go a looong way toward returning the CA Govt back to them, if the BS and lies about this Prop can be effectively countered. Go Ahhnold!

Posted by .com 2005-10-10 10:07|| 2005-10-10 10:07|| Front Page Top

#4 If this passes, and the judges actually do what the law requires, the net result is that you'll have more Republicans in Congress and in the state government in California. Because, proportiaonally speaking, Republicans (and conservatives) are far UNDERrepresented in California if you compare legislators to population percentages.

Posted by Oldspook 2005-10-10 15:27|| 2005-10-10 15:27|| Front Page Top

#5 Proposition 77
A YES vote on this measure means:
Boundaries for political districts would be drawn by retired judges and approved by voters at statewide elections. A redistricting plan would be developed for use following the measure's approval and then following each future federal census.

The problem with this measure is that the political fight will move from the legislature to some smokey star chamber. If anyone believe judges are not political, then I would like to introduce them to the 9th Circuit Court. Why not introduce a simple yet pithy criteria like "The total circumference of all legislative districts shall be a minimum." and let any citizen access the population data and come up with the most compact districts, instead of the meandering gerrymandered districts we now have.

Posted by ed 2005-10-10 16:06|| 2005-10-10 16:06|| Front Page Top

#6 Have the districts drawn by computer (without any political-alignment data). This is the home of sillycon valley isn't it?

Posted by CrazyFool 2005-10-10 16:16|| 2005-10-10 16:16|| Front Page Top

#7 True, ed. What is there now sucks like an F5 on steeeeroids. Could this be worse? Dunno if it can get worse when you already have much of the state misrepresented. It's rather apparent that this has strong Republican support, so I presume they've done their homework and believe it will both rectify this travesty and be acceptable to the public at the same time. Of course, CA Pubs have a lousy track record on many fronts, but I figured it's mainly because the asshats have been pretty much running things since Reagan. Of course, they could definitely be wrong and I could be foolish to believe their solution will pan out.

Regards your idea ("minimum area") that rings and sings - should be part of every state's districting provisions.

Posted by .com 2005-10-10 16:35|| 2005-10-10 16:35|| Front Page Top

#8 Not the minimum area -- minimum perimeter, and only simple shapes (discounting bodies of water).

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2005-10-10 17:22|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-10-10 17:22|| Front Page Top

#9 Until Ed presents his algorithm, this is a very good proposal. It will not be in a back room but open to public comment with hearing and subject to rejection by the people. The greatest benefit will be that more seats in Caliphornia become competitive. Because most seats are not competitive, the extreme candidate from the party that owns the seat wins in the primary. So Caliphornia gets extremely liberal donks and extremely conservative trunks (but not many). The real elections are the primaries. Thus victorious candidates will soon be much more moderate than current victors, whether Republican or Democrat. This will help Caliphornia and ultimately the whole country. Remember Boxer, Pelosi, Dellums, Waters, Waxman, Stark, and Burton all got their start in the Caliph legislature. It's the farm team for the Caliphornia House delegation that has 10% of the seats in the house.

It will also screw the real back room operators, the thugs that now run Caliphornia government; the teachers, prison guards, and indian tribes.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-10-10 17:28|| 2005-10-10 17:28|| Front Page Top

#10 I want to get the redistricting out of the hands of small groups who benefit from it (current politicians or judicial dealmakers with friends in high places) to the voters themselves. Create hard critera that is not easily manipulated and let any citizen come up with the best solution that satisfies those criteria.

If I were to draw districts, I would use something like the minimum circumference criteria and equal legal population, but using elementary school zones (closest thing we have to neighborhood boundaries) as the atomic unit. The problem then becomes manageable by either the political office with computer progammers or a kook with a map and a ball of string. But the final criteria (total circumference) can be easily ranked and the best chosen.

Posted by ed 2005-10-10 18:10|| 2005-10-10 18:10|| Front Page Top

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