The Anti-Redistricting Money

The supporters of Prop 11, the California ballot initiative to change how legislative districts, have an uphill fight. Redistricting reform, however well-conceived, always loses in California because of opposition from Democratic and Republican partisans. But every time I approach 100 percent certainty that redistricting will fail again, Don Perata gives me pause.

No politician in California better represents the dysfunction, immaturity and just plain incompetence of the state's elected leadership. Perata has been under investigation by the FBI for his entire time in leadership. (No charges have been brought yet). He's been the person who blocked any number of bipartisan compromises that would advance public policy in the state, most notably on water and health care. And he has misled the public about his intentions to advance political reform, specifically redistricting reform. Again and again, he promised that he and the legislature would produce a redistricting measure. He never followed through. 

This story in the Sacramento Bee is of itself a new chapter in the Perata story. The California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the prison guards' union, has donated more than a half-million to a Perata political committee. The goal of the union? A better contract. Yes, that seems yucky, but the CCPOA is playing by the warped rules of the game. Other unions do the same. Business interests also attempt to buy legislative outcomes. But Perata's intention is even more interesting: he's going to put the money into fighting Prop 11, the redistricting initiative.

Perata's ham-handedness is a gift to supporters of Prop 11. They want to run against the legislature and legislative arrogance, and the Democratic senate leader hands them this. The Yes on 11 folks ought to make Perata a campaign co-chair.