Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that California can thank legislative dysfunction for the recent passage of Proposition 11, which prevents state lawmakers from drawing their own district boundaries in 2011.
The Republican governor appeared at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento along with leaders from government watchdog groups and the carpenters' union to celebrate Proposition 11. For Schwarzenegger, it marked a return to the stage of his famous 2003 recall campaign rally in which he called for an overhaul of California's political system.
Among the proposals he announced was a redistricting change similar to Proposition 11. "At that time five years ago," Schwarzenegger said, "I didn't have the foggiest idea of how difficult it would be to pass that initiative."
Voters rejected a redistricting change in 2005 when Schwarzenegger included it among his special election initiatives. He noted that the Legislature also failed to approve such a measure.
Advocates, including leaders from the League of Women Voters, AARP and the carpenters' union, emphasized that the change would create more competitive state legislative districts. In theory, they suggested, such districts would send more compromise-minded legislators to Sacramento.
Redistricting proponents outspent their opposition by a 10 to 1 margin this fall, and it only passed by less than 200,000 votes out of 12 million cast in California. Still, Schwarzenegger characterized it as a mandate against a failing Legislature.
"The voters watched as we had the latest budget in the state's history, and they saw Sacramento paralyzed again and again by the same old fight about taxes and spending cuts," Schwarzenegger said. "Proposition 11 passed last month because people are fed up with government right now. They are sick and tired of a state government that doesn't perform."
Bob Mulholland, spokesman for the California Democratic Party, which opposed Proposition 11, said Schwarzenegger's event was "embarrassing" in light of the state's ongoing budget problems.
"Look, five years later, the state is in worse shape than when Schwarzenegger came in, and now he's holding a political rally standing next to railroad trains," Mulholland said.
Schwarzenegger insisted that the Legislature and the political system, rather than his own leadership, were to blame for the budget standoff. He said more changes are necessary, though he did not specify which ballot measures he plans to pursue next. The governor last month told The Bee's editorial board he hopes to follow Proposition 11 with a system in which the top two candidates in a primary, regardless of party, would face off in a general election.
"We only have to look at the current gridlock and the partisan bickering now that is going on in California to know that California desperately needs more government and political reform," Schwarzenegger said.
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