Will the governor (Schwarzenegger) redistrict the state?

[question everything]

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Will the governor redistrict the state?

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
North (San Diego) County Times

After the elections earlier this month, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger jolted some in the California Capitol by saying that he wants to change the way legislative districts are drawn, but some local lawmakers wonder how much political capital the governor is willing to spend on the effort.

(snip)

The governor campaigned heavily for various propositions and Republican candidates. He had hoped that his popularity would help him win some Republican seats in the heavily Democratic Legislature, which would help him pass proposals on spending, government size and other issues. Schwarzenegger was able to win most of his battles on ballot measures, such as defeating the Indian-backed Proposition 70 and the private-gambling industry's Proposition 68. But the state's House and Senate remained largely unchanged.

(snip)

The governor has said that a midcensus redistricting done by a nonpartisan panel of retired judges would help create a more moderate Legislature, which he said is polarized because of "safe" seats.

More..

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/11/21/news/state/13_23_2211_20_04.txt

Scripps-McClatchy Western Service contributed to this report.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at [phone] or [e-mail].

[bemildred]

1. Governors don't redistrict anything. Legislatures do. nt

[George_S]

2. He's just saying what he's told to say.

Hell, he didn't even know what redistricting means a few months ago.

He's gotta go.

[Carla in Ca]

3. Yeah, ask him about gerrymandering

And he would probably say "Hey, I never touched her!"

[question everything]

4. LOL nt

[imenja]

5. California still has a state legislature

and it's controlled by Democrats. It's not Texas.

[SoCalDem]

7. They had BETTER draft some legislation that's veto-proof

and it had better SPELL OUT the way redistricting is to be done.. If it's in the least ambiguous, you can bet that the repubes are staying awake nights trying to figure a way to get a better grip on CA..

Don't be complacent.. Texas was once a Blue state...so were many other current red states..

We have a majority now, but with vaporvote machines, who knows how long that will last?

[imenja]

8. Texas was a Democratic state when it was a one party state

when the Democrats were the party of segregation.
Until the last couple of decades, there was only one party in Texas--the Democrats--and all contests were decided at the primary level. Those guys were more reactionary than any northern Republican.

[struggle4progress]

18. Basically the same wingnuts, then and now. They were furious ...

... at LBJ when he helped kill Jim Crow, and Nixon lured them over to the Repub Party. We Dems are well rid of those racist troglodytes IMHO.

[okieinpain]

6. incredible. moral values my ass.

[TheFarseer]

9. That would radically change my opinion of Arnold

if he gerrymandered more republicans into office. That is so dishonest and just gets me hoping mad. I was just furious when Texas did that. Right now, I think Arnold is not so bad except for the obvious that he really is not qualified to be the governor of our most populous state. But if he started pulling crap like that, I would have to join all of you and start to really dislike him.

[MandateThis]

20. Get Arnold Out!

He follows bush in the bully department. Is that a value or a flaw? The man is a law breaker, the day of his election he was on the steps of a polling place. He opened the door to the place and smiled to an elderly couple. "Vote for me!" he said. The couple smiled. I can't stand the man. I believe the stories that he's a groper. He agrees with many in the administration who say: "People are so stupid they don't know what to do with freedom. YOu have to tell them what to do". He's been itching to turn Calif. blue. His iniatives went through and I wonder if that was tampered with. None - well maybe one repub. won a seat on the 2nd. His RNC speech was a lie. He didn't live in Austria when it was Communist. There's an Austrian paper that came out right after and called him a liar. What's to like about him? It's reported now that he was in engery meetings, private of course where the crisis was manipulated to make Davis a devil and Arnold was picked because of his bulk. That's how repubs think. Get a muscle guy and they can fix problems. Now who is it that like Hollywood??

[newyawker99]

22. Hi MandateThis!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Democat]

10. Republicans can't win legally so they try to cheat!

This is exactly how they got Arnold into office. The right lost a race, then came back and cheated, using millions of dollars in special interest money and out-of-state right wingers to buy signatures to overturn a legal election in California.

They lost the 2004 election badly in California and Arnold looks like a fool because just about everyone he campaigned for lost. Now they want to cheat again. Watch the special interest corporations jump in with millions of dollars to try to steal California for the Repulbicans, again.

[zann725]

17. His staged 'take-over' from Gray Davis...

was ALWAYS about California's electoral votes.

That blank stare, Austrian accent...:crazy:

[SoCalDem]

19. The instant that Davis was re-elected, the "recall" began

There ARE lots of rich republicans in this state, so we ignore them at our own peril.. They have the money and they have the desire to muck with things here.. Don;t forget about the vapor-vote machines too.. All that has to happen, is for the general publiuc to start to hear about "how close" the republicans are to democrats in their plans..and how polls "tell us how important "values" are".. you know the drill.. Stuff starts to enter the information arena, and people hear it enough to start to believe it.. Next election, republicans get enough manufactured votes to start "winning some close races" and before long, the dem majority is gone..

Republicans are tenacious and patient.

The real kicker.. Ahhhnold is not doing ANYTHING that Davis would not have done.. and the problems that started the whole mess here were directed from DC and Texas energy companies (Bush supporters, all)..

This was a massive set-up..and it IS all about getting control of the California EVs and our economy ..

Wake UP..

[Democat]

11. One more thing - notice how Republicans are on the offensive even when...

...they are in the minority?

Republicans won in Washington and they are the ones on the offensive. Republicans lost in California and they are the ones on the offensive. No matter what, the Republicans are the ones on the offensive.

Republicans have no fear of pissing people off or of fighting hard, mean, and dirty, even when they are in the minority.

Why is it that whether Republicans win or lose, they are always the ones on the offensive?

Where are our leaders? They are on the defensive, when not kissing ass to the Republicans or lying down and letting Republicans get away with anything they want.

Why are the Republicans always the ones on the offensive? Why? It's infuriating to be a Democrat at this time in history. Our party mostly sucks.

[Protect The Vote]

12. So, let's see

Arnold wants to take the power of redistricting from the legislature to the judicial branch. And he wants to amend the US constitution to allow foreign nationals to be president.

No doubt about it, Arnold is a great *conservative*. Stay the course, Arnold!

[question everything]

13. That's what happens when you go through life winning with raw muscles nt

[mulsh]

14. maybe this is why they're going after Perata

(dem senate leader) and Shelly so hard. time to circle the wagons
girls and boys and fight back hard.

[Democat]

15. They are going after the majority leaders - why aren't Dems doing the same

We allow the Republicans majority leaders to run wild while they try to take our majority leaders down.

What is wrong with this picture?

[Zorra]

16. Schwarzenegger is an Enron fascist that was selected governor solely

because energy companies want to use him for their Machiavellian purposes, and because he is a famous actor.

We must start an all out political assault against him immediately, because RW fascists have bigger plans for their new Hollywood politician.

[MandateThis]

21. I'm with you Zorra

Let's do an all out assault on him. You can consider anything a repub. says as a lie. LIke the lie that he didn't want to be prez-i-dent. The republicans would love to vote for a movie star although they say they hate them. They are so out of reality. Too much koolaid.

[yellowcanine]

23. El gropinator is starting to act like a dictator. Guess what Arnie - the

rules apply to you also. You wanted to be governor? Shut up and govern.

[ibegurpard]

24. You can't redistrict mid-decade

the census only comes out every ten years. Requirements for population equality (or close to it) mean that you need actual counts of people to be able to know where to draw the lines.