A California Inaugural

Joe Mathews — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:55:00 -0500

I had planned to spend today making phone calls on various stories. Bad idea.

No one's here. The governor, the lieutenant governor, the leaders of the state assembly and the state senate, the attorney general, the secretary of state, the mayors of San Francisco and Los Angeles -- they're all in Washington for the inaugural. In fact, the ceremony was dominated by Californians. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein presided. Feinstein and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi escorted Obama in. Orange County's Rev. Rick Warren said the opening prayer.

With everyone out of town, one wonders who is in charge. Fortunately, it's not a bad time for our leaders to be gone, since the state is in such great shape, big budget surplus, no calamity staring us in the face... Oh, yes?... Never mind.

Pelosi Reveals Herself and Makes Case for Redistricting, Unintentionally

Joe Mathews — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:13:00 -0400

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other California Congressional Democrats this week declared their opposition to Prop 11, the redistricting reform initiative on the state's November ballot. Yes, the initiative's prospects are bleak, but this particular endorsement is worth examining. Pelosi announced her opposition in a letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger, a major backer of the initiative. That letter (posted here on the California Majority Report, a Democrat site that also opposes the measure) is highly -- and unintentionally -- revealing about Pelosi, her thinking and the out-of-touch mindset created by California's gerrymandering, which protects incumbents of both parties.

One line in Pelosi's letter stands out in this regard. Pelosi writes that "Proposition 11 will create, arguably, the most powerful political commission in the state." The commission she's referring to is the citizens' commission that would draw district lines under the measure. But her myopia and mindset are revealed by the words "most powerful." Only a politician who sees California as little more than a place that serves her political career could even think such a thing. Earth to Pelosi: To those of us who live here, there are any number of boards and commissions more powerful than anything that would be cooked up by Prop 11. The State Board of Education, which oversees the most important government program (and half the state budget), immediately comes to mind. There's also the Air Resources Board, which is in the middle of producing new regulations to combat climate change in our state. (The state ARB has had to take this leadership role because of the total absence of leadership in Washington on this issue). California has an extraordinary powerful Public Utilities Commission. And for those of us who treasure the ocean and the beach, there's the Coastal Commission. I could go on. But you get the point.

The opposition of Pelosi and other California Congressional Democrats to this measure is frustrating, in large part because its drafters tried to avoid that opposition. Prop 11 does not change the method for drafting Congressional districts; it only affects state legislative districts and the districts of the state's Board of Equalization (which, it says here, is also a more powerful political body than the redistricting citizens' commission that would be created by the initiative). In an effort to convince Pelosi and others members of Congress not to oppose the measure, the initiative exempts them. And now they oppose it anyway. I hope a lesson has been learned by Common Cause and the other goo goos behind this: It does no good to feed the animals. They'll bite anyway.