The Pelosicrats Are At It Again

California Democrats were ticked off enough when two years ago the voters of the State of California approved an initiative which took mandatory redistricting out of the hands of self-serving politicians and put it in the hands of a civilian panel comprised of five Democrats, five Republicans, and four unaffiliated voters. But the law applied only to State districts. This year, the same thing was put together for Congressional elections.

For the Democrats (and a few "safe" Republicans) that was going a bridge too far. So we now have dueling Propositions on the November 2 ballot. Prop. 20 was done by initiative. In the initiative process, private citizens outside the government put together a proposed law, get enough signatures, and it is placed on the ballot. Prop. 27 was put together by the Democrat-controlled legislature with the assistance of the Congressional delegation led by Nancy Pelosi (largely because they want California to remain a "blue" state). In order for it not to look like a pure political ploy, the legislators used the initiative process by getting non-elected consultants and "concerned citizens" to put it on the ballot. Prop. 20 expands the citizen redistricting panel to Congressional elections. Prop. 27 not only keeps that from happening, but eliminates the citizens panel entirely and returns both state and federal redistricting to the hands of the pols.

Having two Propositions on the ballot which conflict with each other is the intent of the Democrats. They want confusion to reign on the distinct chance that voters will vote more heavily for Prop. 27 than for Prop. 20. It wasn't enough that the Democrats wanted to continue to control federal redistricting, but they figured while they were at it, they might as well get rid of any popular type of redistricting. Quite simply put, when two Propositions conflict, the one with the most votes becomes the law.

I've mentioned to you before that California is not nearly as blue as the MSM would have it, nor as blue as the district maps show. The heavy Democrat control of the legislature is largely the result of gerrymandered districts. In the wake of the 2000 Census, the Democrats controlled both the legislature and the governorship and thus had complete control over redistricting under the old system. They gerrymandered the districts so well that in the ten years since, only 5 of the 692 state and federal legislative seats have changed political hands. In the current election, even with the tremendous surge in Republican and Independent ire, it is likely that only 13 California Assembly and Senate seats (out of a total of 100) could even conceivably change party hands. As for Congress, only 4 out of 53 Congressional seats are up for grabs.

But that is under the old plan. If Prop. 20 passes, this would all change by the time of the 2012 general elections. Both state and federal districts would be more evenly drawn, disparities between size, shape and population of districts would be more evenly and compactly distributed. California has never been under any consent decrees resulting from the Voting Rights Act, so racial demographics would play a much smaller part. If any ethnic groups are affected directly by that, it would most likely mean an increase in Hispanic representation and a decrease in African-American representation, but even that is not a sure thing. In other words, to the extent humans are capable of reason, the districts would be drawn reasonably.

The concept of the people having any control over their voting districts is anathema to Democrats. A few Republicans are lukewarmly supporting Prop. 27 because they are in safe Republican districts. That lack of principle is disgusting. However, in most cases, a redistricting along fair and impartial lines would be far more damaging to Democrats and far more advantageous to Republicans. Democrat donors, and particularly the unions, have poured considerable resources into defeating Prop. 20 and passing Prop. 27.

It is estimated by several respectable authorities of both political parties that passage of Prop. 20 would add at least 10 more Congressional seats and 10 to 12 state seats into competition above the few that are already competitive. In no way does that guarantee Republican victories or even Republican control, but at least it somewhat levels the playing field.

Here's how the execrable Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez describes how desirable a return to the old system is: "Paying $20,000 is nothing to keep your seat. I spend $2 million campaigning every year. If my colleagues are smart, they'll pay their $20,000 and Democratic Consultant Michael Berman will draw the district they can win in. Those who refuse to pay? God help them."

Nancy Pelosi played a major part in drafting and foisting Prop.27 on the California voters. Her district is safe, no matter what. But since she will undoubtedly lose her position as Speaker of the House in November, she would at least like to have as many California Democrats as possible there with her in the minority party House caucus.