Finally, A Common Sense Initiative Reform
California has the most inflexible
initiative process in the world – which is to say, our process is totally
divorced from the legislative process. This state makes it harder than most
states and countries to fix errors and negotiate compromises on initiatives
before an election. And California is the only place on the planet that does
not permit the legislative body to amend or change an initiative statute once
it’s passed, except by another vote of the people.
Nearly every legislative session
brings proposals to reform the initiative process. But these almost always are
really efforts to stop the process, or make it more even more costly than it
already is. And usually, the proposals are one-offs, a single change that may
make very little difference at all.
This month, Assemblyman Mike Gatto
of Los Angeles offered the most thoughtful approach to initiative reform I’ve
seen. Gatto, who seems to understand that changing something like this requires
a package of reforms, has introduced five constitutional amendments that fit
well together.
Why Pull the Trigger in Compton?
Heard about the new "parent trigger" allowing parents to
petition to reconstitute a failing school? Promising idea.
Did you hear that supporters of the
trigger organized to make the first use of the "parent trigger" in Compton?
A very bad idea.
I spent three years reporting in
and around Compton for the LA Times. In many ways, the town is better than its
reputation – it’s more prosperous and less violent than you know. The city’s
real problem is a political and civic culture is as nasty and brutish as you’ll
ever find.
I spent many hours listening to
Compton citizens spin out long, involved and just plain conspiracy theories
about politics, government and, yes, schools. And those conspiracy-minded
Compton citizens were the officials in charge!
What The Wikileaks Cables Say About California
The most significant California-related news in the
Wikileaks cables are the Chinese hacking attacks on Google. That story has been
well covered. But California also appears in a dozen different places in the
cables. Among them:
-Bulgarian organized crime in LA. A July 2005 cable from the
U.S. ambassador in Sofia, Bulgaria, warns that organized crime was the
country’s most significant problem, and it notes that it’s a problem that
affects the U.S. because of "significant drug trafficking organizations run by
Bulgarian nationals in Los Angeles."
– A key member of the Afghan President Karzai’s government –
the economic minister Haji Abdul Hadi Arghandewal – is seen as being a moderate
that the U.S. can work with. Among his ties to the country: he used to live
here and still has family in California, according to a 2010 cable.
– Swedes and climate change. Swedish companies in
alternative energy are desperate for funding from California venture capital
firms, according to 2007 cables from the U.S. embassy in Stockholm. The State
Department even seemed to have a role in a meeting at Stanford between Swedish
firms and venture capitalists.
Villaraigosa’s game-changing speech
The most significant speech given by a California politician this year was LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s address to a PPIC conference in Sacramento on Tuesday.
Villaraigosa is a former employee of two giant California teachers’ unions. He is one of the state most important Democratic politicians, and certainly its most prominent Latino one — in a state that is Democratic politically and increasingly Latino. And despite all of that, he gave a speech calling out teachers’ unions as the strongest obstacles to education reform.
This one is worth clipping and saving. It could be a career ender for Villaraigosa. Or it could launch him to statewide office later this decade. Either way, you’ll be hearing about this speech again. The full text of Villaraigosa’s speech is below.
Oh, No! Too Many Asians!
Terrible news! California has a big new problem at the heart of its democracy:
There are too many Asian Americans drawing lines.
The lines in question are district lines for Assembly, Senate, Congressional and Board of Equalization seat. The Asian Americans in question are four people from around California whose names were among the first eight people selected – via lottery — to serve on the new Citizens Redistricting Commission.
This over-representation of Asians is suddenly a concern for supporters on the redistricting commission, which is the product of two ballot initiatives, Prop 11 in 2008 and Prop 20 from this November. Those initiatives were supposed to create a line-drawing body independent from politics and representative of the state.
It remains to be seen how politically independent the commission will be. But the body’s structure puts the goal of a representative body beyond reach – and show just how preposterous the commission itself is.
Inaction! Inaction! Inaction!
I’ve been impressed by the first four weeks of Jerry Brown’s transition to the governorship.
“Huh?” you want to ask me. “He hasn’t done anything so how can you impressed?”
Exactly.
It’s all the nothing that impresses me.
Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger seem to agree on much in the way of policy, but they are men of vastly different temperaments, and strategies. Schwarzenegger promised “Action! Action! Action!” Brown and his people – on the rare moments when they can be bothered to comment – are promising “Inaction! Inaction! Inaction!”
This has flipped the usual dynamic of gubernatorial transitions on its head. Typically, one would expect the lame duck governor to do very little, while the incoming governor-elect is full of announcements and proposals. But California in the late 2010 is an upside-down place, with the hyperactive Schwarzenegger dominating the news with appointments and initiatives while Brown says very little.
What I’m Thankful For: Meg’s Campaign
You’re probably like me. When you sit down at Thanksgiving dinner and think about what you’re thankful for this year, your thoughts will quickly turn to Meg Whitman.
Yes, she lost her run for governor. Tragically. But her campaign continues to benefit many people, including myself. Here are five reasons I’m thankful for Meg’s campaign.
5. It produced the most delicious political story of the year, the allegations by Meg’s former housekeeper Nicky Diaz Santillan and her attorney Gloria Allred. Yes, the story didn’t give you anyone to root for—everyone was profoundly self-interested in this tale. But it offered a glimpse into the reality of California life – both for the very rich and for the working poor – and thus provided a brief bit of honesty in a thoroughly dishonest election season.
4. The one-woman economic stimulus. As bad as the California economy is, where would be without the $160 million-plus her campaign pumped into the state economy? At least there’s one Republican politician in this state who believes in stimulus. Thanks again, Meg.
I Cry for Don Perata
It is terrible what happened to Don Perata in the race for Oakland mayor.
Did you hear? The man who ruled the state senate lost his bid to be mayor of Oakland. And it’s just so unfair, as many of Perata’s supporters have made clear. Perata’s consultant John Whitehurst declared that the election outcome had been “an injustice, and Oakland will pay the price.”
The problem, you see, was this new system called Instant Runoff Voting now being used in Oakland, San Francisco, and other cities around the country. In this system, cities – crazily — give voters more choice and avoid expensive runoff elections by allowing voters to rank their choices on the ballot, instead of just choosing one candidate.
So Perata, a fabulous public servant, won the most first place of any of the nine candidates running for mayor. He got 35 percent of those first place votes. But he lost because 35 percent of votes wasn’t a majority. The woman who finished in second place among first-place votes, a city council member named Jean Quan, won when the ranked choices were used to conduct an instant runoff. She had many more second and third place choices than Perata, and won when those were added to the tally.
Who Made The $6 Billion Hole in the Budget? Me
I’d like to apologize for the $6 billion hole that’s already opened up in this year’s state budget.
I made the hole.
But I didn’t do it alone. I had help from a few friends. You may know them as the voters of California.
We made this hole together last year. Remember it? The hole was created back in May 2009, so long ago that Meg Whitman and Nicky Diaz Santillan were still family.
That month, the voters of California faced six ballot measures as part of a special election. The election had to be called to bless five pieces of a February 2009 budget deal that involved either constitutional changes or changes to programs like the lottery that were established by ballot initiative. (In California, when you change a voter-approved measure, you gotta ask the voters permission). Those pieces involved tweaks worth $6 billion in budget savings.
A Special Session on the Wrong Subject
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was right to call a special session in the waning days of his governorship. But in dedicating the session to the budget deficit, he chose the wrong subject.
Put simply, the last thing this state needs is another debate over how to cut the budget. Anyone paying attention to the California budget crisis figured out long ago that there’s no politically feasible way to balance the state budget. Schwarzenegger’s proposals for cuts are almost certain to be dead on arrival with legislative Democrats, who would prefer to deal with the Democratic governor-elect. Schwarzenegger’s decision to spend the last few weeks of his governorship banging his head against that wall is pointless.
A better approach would be to spend that time looking at constitutional changes that would reshape the budget system itself. Certainly, with a new governor coming in, such a session is unlikely to produce more reforms. But the special session Schwarzenegger has called isn’t any more likely to produce a balanced budget.