Proposition 77: Redistricting
OK, this is by far the most important proposition to come to the voters in a long time if not in the history of the proposition process. This prop is very much at the core of why the proposition process exists. We have a legislature that has jury rigged the system to ensure that they get re-elected. As I heard one commentator say, the legislators pick us, not the other way around. This results in a situation where it is nearly impossible for us to elect new legislators who will fix this problem. The only way it can be fixed is to bypass the legislators and do it ourselves.
We need an impartial committee to draw district borders. Having the legislature do it is the stupidest idea we ever had. The opposition argues that retired judges are no better. I think that is complete BS. Are retired judges completely impartial? No, they aren’t. But they also don’t have any personal interest in the matter either. They’re retired, so they aren’t going to be running for election. They can’t accept any political donations, so they can’t get rich drawing biased borders. And if that isn’t good enough for you, there is a selection process that uses selections from both sides of the isle to put in a lottery system, so it will be very difficult for anyone to influence who the judges are that do the districting. And if THAT isn’t enough, the 3 judge panel has to unanimously vote to accept the borders, which will prevent any 2 judges from using their majority in the proceedings to strong arm the third.
Finally, and this is one of the most overlooked parts of the issue, after the judges draw up the districts, the new districts have to be voted on by us, just like we vote for the propositions. So if the borders are screwed up by the judges, we have a chance to reject them and start the process over with new judges using the lottery process.
With all of these built in protections, how can anyone say that prop. 77 wouldn’t be an improvement?
Everyone agrees that the current district situation is a mess. The opposition claims that this is a flawed attempt. Putting aside for a minute that there real motivation is to keep the status quo (and that’s the TRUTH behind their complaints), what is their alternative that they’re proposing? “Let a bi-partisan committee of legislators do it.” THAT’S HOW WE GOT HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU BOZOS!!!! What happened when we had the legislature do it was that BOTH the Republicans and the Democrats agreed to carve up the state so that the Dems would get heavily democratic leaning districts and the Republicans would get the opposite. Both sides were happy because they protected their own elected seats. Bipartisanship does not help you with redistricting, it’s that simple, because both sides have a motivation to make deals in this fashion to protect themselves.
Need further proof that this isn’t just a Republican power play attempt to get more seats in the legislature? How about this: Many prominent Republicans are against this measure including all the ones who’s district I’m in. I’ve gotten letter after letter telling me to vote against 77 with all kinds of bogus reasons.
Sorry guys, I’m doing the right thing.
My endorsement: YES on prop. 77