In their ongoing quest to avoid accountability, many California politicians have thrown their support behind a measure that will gut the 2008 Proposition 11 redistricting reforms which took the job of drawing legislative districts out of the control of legislators and gave it to an independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. And if they have their way, their measure will derail a November congressional redistricting reform ballot measure, the Voters FIRST Act for Congress that transfers the drawing of congressional districts to the citizens’ commission and away from self-serving, career politicians, as well. Although these politicians try to frame their effort as being in the interest of voters, one only need take a look at the history of this issue to understand their true motives: self-interest.
During the 2001 redistricting, California congressional representatives from both parties cut deals to protect the seats of incumbents. In the process, several members of Congress gave $20,000 to a consultant to help ensure their seats were safe. They got what they paid for; only one congressional seat has changed parties in the last decade. That wiz of a redistricting consultant, Michael Berman, also happens to be the brother of Rep. Howard Berman, whose seat was spared from what many agree should have been a challenge from a Latino candidate – considering the changing demographics of his district.
In 2005, the politicians teamed up again, this time to defeat Proposition 77, an initiative to take the job of drawing districts away from the state legislature and give it to a panel of retired judges. The idea behind Proposition 77 was to finally make politicians accountable to voters by taking away their ability to protect their seats even if they weren’t doing a good job. Here again, consultant Michael Berman had his hand in the pot, making $675,000 managing the campaign to defeat Proposition 77. Part of his huge salary was apparently made possible when a Democrat and a Republican, Reps. Berman and John Doolittle, teamed up to successfully lobby the Federal Elections Commission to lift restrictions on how much politicians could raise to defeat the measure. Chalk up another successful block to accountability to voters.
Now, in 2010, the politicians are at it again, bankrolling the effort to overturn voter-approved Proposition 11, take back the power to draw their own districts, and derail the congressional redistricting reform measure on the November 2010 ballot. The hands of the politicians are all over the effort to repeal Proposition 11 – not surprisingly, including Rep. Berman and his consultant brother Michael. Indeed, even though they deny it to election officials, several news reports (and of course, our common sense) reveal that they are the real sponsors of the measure. And, they have gotten their politician and special interest buddies to contribute millions thus far to their measure in the hopes of thwarting redistricting reform, protecting questionable districts like Berman’s, and continuing to avoid any accountability to voters.
Enough is enough. Decades of cynical, self-serving behavior from politicians has helped plummet this state into a fiscal and economic abyss. We need to be able to hold our elected officials accountable when they don’t do the job we elected them to do. One way to ensure that politicians remain accountable to voters is by taking the power to draw political district lines from the very politicians who stand to personally benefit from the outcome. Polls show voters understand this and support redistricting reform. That’s why they passed Proposition 11 and support passage of the Voters FIRST Act for Congress. And, fortunately, polls also show that voters will soundly reject the transparent power grab by Berman and Company.
The Voters FIRST Act for Congress is asking the FPPC and FEC to look into the current machinations by politicians to sideline redistricting reforms by hiding their controlling involvement in the initiative to gut Proposition 11. Let’s just hope election officials at both the state and federal level take a good look at this issue and finally stop the politicians’ long history of running schemes to protect their turf.