May 6, 2008

Nunez reform ideas

Outgoing Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has introduced a three-part political reform proposal that includes a redistricting commission, a liberalizing of term limits and a ban on fundraising from May 15 until a budget is enacted. Nunez released his proposal on the same day that a bipartisan coalition of political and civic leaders (including Gov. Schwarzenegger and former Gov. Gray Davis) and government reform groups submitted what they say will be enough signatures to qualify their redistricting measure for the November ballot.

The key to understanding Nunez's redistricting measure is what he says is its most important feature: it requires that "communities of interest" take priority in drawing district lines over existing city and county boundaries or geographic features. The problem with that idea is that communities of interest can mean pretty much anything, so if your first priority is to keep a "community" together, you could meander half way across the state to do so, ignoring all other traditional methods of political or civic organization.

In the proposal that appears headed to the ballot, communities of interest get equal weight with the other factors, an idea that some Republican insiders already fear is a way to allow Democrats to pick up more seats and possibly win a two-thirds majority in one or both houses of the Legislature. Putting communities of interest at the top of the list (after the federal Constitution and the Voting Rights Act) is an absolute non-starter for most Republicans and many independents and government reform groups.

The Nunez measure also states explicitly that the districts would not be nested, where each Senate district consists of two Assembly districts combined. When you don't have nesting, and you have three or four or more assembly members representing pieces of one Senate district, you create an disincentive for members to work with each other, even and sometimes especially within the same party. Nobody wants to help a fellow member against whom they might be running next month.

On the bright side, the term limits proposal looks fairly sound -- the shift applies only to future members -- and the fundraising ban is harmless if also largely meaningless. Most of the money would simply be donated anyway, before or after the black-out period, but lobbyists would certainly be grateful to be free or mostly free of fundraising pitches while they are working on budget issues.

But on redistricting, Nunez had a chance to lead and didn't do it. Same for term limits. Unfortunately, his time is now past.

Posted by dweintraub on May 6, 2008 2:25 PM