Armed Resistance

A while back, Californians did an end-run around CA's radical gerrymandering - not to mention the Voting Rights Act - by passing a proposition to create a neutral panel to draw district lines, rather than leave the task to the Legislature as they do in normally functioning states. But, all of the people who depend on artificially created districts (no joke, they use sophisticated computer programs to carefully construct "safe" seats) for their livelihood are not going down without a fight. They claim that the new panel will not be credible because it lacks "diversity." Jeez, not diversity again! Critics Say Redistricting Panel Needs Diversity

as the state auditor moves forward with the complicated process of selecting the 14 members of the commission called for under Proposition 11, critics say their worst fears are being realized.

More than 74 percent of the 7,681 registered voters who have applied for the commission so far are non-Hispanic whites, according to the state auditor's office. Critics say the commission, whose decisions will influence Sacramento's political makeup for a decade, should reflect the racial and ethnic composition of California, which is 42 percent non-Hispanic white.

Democratic Party insiders, who opposed the initiative from the beginning, have begun collecting signatures for another ballot measure that would eliminate the commission altogether and put the redistricting process back in the hands of the Legislature.

Now, it's true that Spanish-speaking people have been living in CA longer than us anglos, or "non-hispanic whites" in the modern parlence. But, it is also true that many of the recent arrivals among spanish-speakers are not here under, ahem, color of law. You would think people who aren't supposed to vote would not have to worry about representation on a redistricting panel, but there seems to be a real effort to elide the difference between citizens (go ahead and vote) and non-citizens (please, don't vote). And, even though we are supposed to be hip and post-racial out here, there sure are a lot of people who think race - rather than, say, economic status, education, or family history - is the prime factor in determining someone's voting patterns.

The present system, of course, is offensive to the eyes. CA's voting districts disregard all boundaries - political, geographic, historic. Even neighborhoods are cut in two by arbitrary district lines. The only thing uniting a particular district is party registration; the districts are tailor made to support one party or another. The result is a 110% incumbency rate for a legislature that has been a disaster over the last 10 years. This is all the result of well-intentioned tinkering, combined with cynical boundary drawing. And, now that Californians have made an effort to change a dysfunctional system, suddenly we are not diverse enough.

How about this: you can have your diversity in exchange for some honest representation.