November 11, 2005

It's not about Arnie's ego

My friend, Laughing Collie, came out against the recent California special election in Arnie's ego gets slapped. I respectfully disagree on a few points, I thought that this special election was worth while for one major reason: I strongly supported Proposition 77 which would have taken redistricting away from the legislature.

I try to support measures that I believe will help elect more moderate candidates and candidates that are willing to work in a bipartisan way to solve problems. I support the idea of open political primaries because I believe it will help moderates of both pirates get elected. I supported Prop 77 because I belive that moderates are much more likely to get elected in completive districts.

When the legislators draws their own districts, they draw them so that each seat is "safe" (has  a massive party majority for the legislator in power). Thus, the politicians have no reason to reach out to the political center, all they have to do to get elected is preach to their party base. This promotes political polarization, not moderation and bipartisanship.

It also means that politicians do not have to worry over much about losing elections. As Michael Barone, author of "The Almanac of American Politics", states in his weblog post: "...the bipartisan redistricting plan adopted for the 2002 elections so safeguarded incumbents and their parties that none of the 53 congressional, 40 state Senate, and 80 assembly districts changed partisan hands in 2004."

100% of the 173 seats up for election in 2004 were won by a candidate of the incumbent party. That was not an election. It was a coronation.

The entrenched special interests in California who benefit from the current political situation (especially the public employees and teachers unions) were against Proposition 77 . They spent a lot of money to knock it down and they won.

Democracy lost.

In my opinion, had Proposition 77 passed, it would have been Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's legacy gift to the people of California. I don't much care if he passed anything else or got reelected. He would have given us back our democracy, and some of our power as citizens.

And that would have made the special election worth all the money and bother.
Posted by georgegmacdonald at November 11, 2005 12:59 PM