April 23, 2008

Remap drive hits magic number, backers say

A drive led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and watchdog groups has collected enough voter signatures to qualify a redistricting measure for the ballot but is gathering more to offset any disqualified during the verification process, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Kathay Feng, director of California Common Cause and an organizer of the initiative campaign, said more than 750,000 voter signatures have been collected thus far, exceeding the 694,354 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the Nov. 4 ballot.

The campaign faces a May 15 deadline for submitting signatures to county elections offices.

“We’re pretty much on track,” Feng said. “We’re planning on filing in the first week of May. We’re in the process of gathering that final bump to cover any signatures that turn out to be duds.”

The proposal would strip the Legislature of authority to draw its own political districts and give the job to an 14-member citizens commission of registered voters.

Attorney Barry Fadem, representing backers, said when the initiative was unveiled in February that it was crafted with input from California Common Cause, AARP and the League of Women Voters of California, among others.

Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, said he doubts the drive is going as smoothly as backers claim.

Schwarzenegger’s recent pumping of an additional $700,000 into the campaign and reports that the initiative drive’s price per signature has risen from $2 to $2.25 clearly are red flags, according to Maviglio.

Even if the measure does qualify for the ballot, its prospects are bleak in a state where voters consistently have rejected changes to the redistricting process, Maviglio said.

“People are more concerned about their jobs, the price of gas and the war in Iraq than they are about legislative maps,” Maviglio said.

Feng countered that Núñez’s office is putting out a “variety of rumors” to hurt the drive.

“(Núñez) is busy generating rumors because I think they’re trying to deflect from the fact that they don’t have any plan of their own,” Feng said.

Posted by Jim Sanders on April 23, 2008 11:09 AM