Time magazine likes to pick a person of the year, usually a news figure who transformed our world, usually for the better (though not always).
What if we were to pick such a person in California?
It’s been such a rotten year, and California’s civic climate seems so stuck, that it’s hard to choose anyone. As I thought about whom to nominate, I considered the entrepreneur (next frontier: space) Richard Branson. I pondered whether to nominate Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, who is making history with climate change regulation. The cynical political observer in me thought about offering up Abel Maldonado, who showed just how much a state legislator can accomplish for himself with one vote.
My runner-up is California Supreme Court Justice Ronald George, who effectively reversed his 2008 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage and reaffirmed the supremacy of voters by upholding Prop 8 (even when the voters are wrong, as in the case of Prop 8). George also bravely and appropriately spoke out about the need for constitutional reform in California.
So who is my choice for person of the year? Jim Wunderman, who has led the effort for a California constitutional convention.
Yes, there’s plenty to criticize about the proposed initiative to call a convention (I’ve gotten my own shots in). But Wunderman has made more progress in pursuit of this convention than insiders ever thought he would. He’s won endorsements and support across the ideological spectrum, managed to get initiatives written, and appears to have the money to qualify the idea for the 2010 ballot.
Most important, in pushing the idea of a convention in the face of widespread skepticism, he’s expanded what has been a too-narrow debate over how to fix California’s broken system. And he has done it with a democratic, self-critical spirit that the state desperately needs. The town hall meetings organized this year by Repair California, the committee that is leading the effort, were extraordinary in that they included – in prominent speaking roles – fierce critics of the convention.
Wunderman’s efforts may not produce a convention, and it’s possible that if the state has a convention, we may all live to regret it. But his pursuit of constitutional reform has been a bit of light in a very dark year for California politics and government. Thank you, Jim.