Who’s our representative in the state Senate, Assembly, House of
Representatives?
Who’s our representative in the state Senate, Assembly, House of Representatives?
If you’re not sure, there’s a good reason. Our legislative districts are so gerrymandered, there’s someone from the San Joaquin Valley representing Hollister and someone from the San Luis Obispo area representing Morgan Hill.
Sanity is at hand, however. Proposition 77 on Tuesday’s ballot will create much needed redistricting reform. The proposal might not be perfect, but it’s a far cry better than California’s current system.
Presently, after each census, the California legislature redraws boundaries for state Senate, state Assembly, and U.S. House of Representatives districts. Legislators are supposed to draw reasonable lines that give each district an approximately equal share of the population. Instead, in a process called gerrymandering, they draw ridiculous districts that serve not to group communities with like interests and concerns, but instead to ensure that seats do not change political parties.
That’s where Proposition 77 comes in. It would take the authority to draw districts away from state legislators and give it to a panel of three retired judges who would create districts that are then voted on by the public.
Those opposed dislike giving an unelected, unaccountable panel of judges this kind of power. Those in favor say that the current system is irretrievably broken due to self-interest, as evidenced by the complete lack of competitive races.
We agree. The current system is not good government, and it’s time that we all stopped griping about gerrymandering and did something to fix the problem. And the only way to fix the system is to take out the blatant conflict of interest, which Proposition 77 would do.
Similar systems are already working well in a number of states. For the good of California, let’s give the three-judge panel a try. It has to be better than the mess we’ve got now. Vote yes on Proposition 77.
