Choice Voting Blog

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Governor Schwarzenegger's redistricting proposal is now public. Assembly Members McCarthy and Runner introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 3 (ACAX1 3) on Friday.

Under the amendment, a randomly selected multi-partisan panel of 3 judges would choose new district boundaries. Among other things, the amendment provides that (1) districts be compact, (2) effect on political parties and incumbents not be considered, (3) competitiveness be ensured (percentage of registered voters in two major parties differ by no more than 7 percent), and (4) at least 6 public hearings must be hold before deciding.

Current districts are not necessarily compact. For instance, the State Legislature included Davis in a Congressional district (CD1) that lies along the coast and stretches to the Oregon border. See the picture. The red dot is Davis.

So far, amendment support is split along party lines, with 18 Republican coauthors and no Democrats. On the whole, Democratic politicians benefit from existing district lines. For example, in last November's Assembly elections, 53% of Assembly votes were cast for Democrats, yet 60% of the Assembly is Democrat. For Republicans, 44% of votes cast translated to 40% Republican Assembly seats. Of the 153 state and federal legislative seats up for grabs in California last November, none changed parties.