Reconnecting Californians to Their Government (Los Angeles)

This event is co-sponsored with University of Southern California Bedrosian Center on Governance

Voters want change, despite the failure of last November's reform ballot measures. Political analysts have recommended a number of reforms, from redistricting, revised term limits, and open primaries to alternative election systems and the public financing of campaigns. But how do we change a system when powerful interests defend the status quo?

A model solution lies across the border in Canada. Called a Citizens Assembly, its strength lies in restoring power to the people. British Columbia recently delegated the task of basic political reform to its own citizens by creating a panel of 160 voters chosen at random (like a jury pool). The Citizens Assembly members spent several months studying the performance of their democracy and ultimately proposed a change for voters to consider on the ballot. In doing so, British Columbia took stale partisanship out of the political process -- something California badly needs.

This highly successful experience has been turned into bipartisan legislation that was introduced this year into the California State Assembly and is receiving broad attention. The Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters recently wrote that Governor Schwarzenegger "should stop negotiating the terms of his surrender to the Legislature and make the [Citizens Assembly] his new crusade." Join the New America Foundation as we discuss the political implications of using Citizens Assemblies here in California.

New America Foundation is sponsoring this event statewide, on January 25th in San Francisco and January 26th in Sacramento. If you are interested in attending either of these other events, please email Lily Ho at ho@newamerica.net.

For more info about the proposal for a California Citizens Assembly, see this article in the Sacramento Bee.

Participants

• Keith Richman
  Assemblyman (R-Northridge)


• Joseph Canciamilla
  Assemblyman (D-Pittsburg)


• Gordon Gibson
  Former Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia


• David Abel
  Chair, New Schools, Better Neighborhoods


• Steven Hill
  Director, Political Reform Program, New America Foundation