As the application deadline approaches for Californians seeking to serve on the Citizen's Redistricting Commission, a handful of California lawmakers are writing big checks to an effort to give the job of redrawing state legislative and Board of Equalization districts back to lawmakers.
Fourteen Democratic members of California's congressional delegation and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass have recently chipped in a total of $160,000 to a campaign account for a proposed initiative that would eliminate the 14-member citizen redistricting panel created by Proposition 11 , according to campaign finance filings reported yesterday.
Contributions included $25,000 from Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, $10,000 from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and $20,000 from Bass, who is expected to run for retiring Rep. Diane Watson's seat (Watson, too, chipped in $10,000).
The proposed initiative, the Financial Accountability in Redistricting Act, has been cleared for signature gathering and must collect nearly 700,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
The support comes as a proposed initiative to expand the responsibilities of the citizen commission to redrawing congressional lines sits on a big pot of cash. Charles T. Munger ,Jr. a big financial backer of Prop 11, has so far put more than $2 million into that effort, which congressional members aren't exactly pleased about.
Several other proposed ballot measures reported big cash boosts yesterday:
- A proposed initiative to change California's term limit laws reported another $157,000 from a PAC run by the LA County Federation of Labor. The group gave the effort $100,000 in December.
- The California Federation of Teachers dropped $700,000 into a campaign account for a measure to lower the two-thirds budget vote requirement to a majority vote.
Update: An earlier version of this post said 13 members and Bass had given a total of $150,000. We missed one $10,000 contribution in that count.
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