January 05, 2006

"Redistricting backers renew effort to change process"

From the AP:

"Two months after voters rejected Proposition 77, supporters of the redistricting measure announced a new initiative campaign to take the power to draw legislative and congressional districts away from lawmakers.

"I think there is broad agreement across the political spectrum that our current political system is broken, and that one of the reasons it is broken is that we have politicians drawing their own political boundaries," Derek Cressman, director of TheRestofUs.org, a political watchdog group, said Wednesday.

"Democrats, Republicans, independents - everyone agrees that is an inherently corrupt process and it must be changed."

The new initiative would create an 11-member commission made up of registered voters picked at random by the secretary of state to draw new districts after each national census.

The panel would be composed of four Democrats, four Republicans and three independents or members of minor parties. It could not include anyone who had run for public office, been a political appointee or aide, worked for a political party or been a lobbyist in the previous 10 years."

Posted by Randy Riddle at January 5, 2006 03:19 PM