Looking for your California state legislator? Check the house next door.
That's the promise one Republican who attended the GOP's state party convention in Sacramento was touting over the weekend as he promoted a proposed ballot initiative to create what he's calling a "Neighborhood Legislature."
Each of the state's 120 state legislative districts would be broken into 100 precinct-level mini-districts. The change would mean that each legislator is elected by several thousand voters instead of several hundred thousand. The number of lawmakers serving in the Legislature wouldn't go up. Instead, the 100 candidates elected within the mini-districts would caucus to select one person to serve and vote in Sacramento.
John H. Cox, a businessman backing the change, acknowledges that the idea is unconventional and perhaps "counterintuitive," but he said breaking down state representation would break "the connection between money and being elected" and make lawmakers more accountable.
Cox plans to submit his plan for the 2014 ballot and intends to put $500,000 of his money into the drive. Gathering voter signatures can cost more than $1 million, but Cox said he expects his proposal to attract a lot of grassroots support.
– Torey Van Oot
BILL WATCH
Transgender students would have the right to cite the gender with which they identify when using school restrooms or participating in activities under legislation introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco. AB 1266 would let pupils participate in activities and use facilities regardless of the gender on their birth records. The bill applies to choirs, sports or other sex-segregated activities.
– Melody Gutierrez
WORTH REPEATING
"Every girl in California should be able to pursue a dream that is as natural as breathing."
GEENA DAVIS, Academy Award- winning actress, speaking Monday to the Assembly after being presented with the "Breaking the Glass Ceiling" award with nine other distinguished California women
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