Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined the redistricting reform movement. From
A little over a year after Arnold Schwarzenegger did an end run around politics as usual in the recall election that made him governor of California, he is embarking on a new campaign against the status quo here. In his annual State of the State address on Wednesday night, the governor called on the Democratic-controlled Legislature to enact a fundamental overhaul that would include that most sacred of political cows, the way Congressional and legislative districts are drawn. Mr. Schwarzenegger proposed turning over the drawing of the state’s political map to a panel of retired judges, taking it out of the hands of lawmakers who for decades have used the redistricting process in a cozy bipartisan deal to choose their voters and cement their incumbency. He threatened to take the issue directly to the voters if the Legislature does not act on the plan in a special session he called for. Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, noted that of the 153 seats in the California Congressional delegation and Legislature that were on the ballot in November, not one changed party hands. “What kind of a democracy is that?” he asked in his address. “The current system is rigged to benefit the interests of those in office and not those who put them there,” he said. “We must reform it.” Amen. I’ve been banging the drum for redistricting reform since I started this blog (see here and here). California’s corrupt and insular political system needs a shakeup. And, even better, Kevin Drum says that a deal to make it happen might extend term limits substantially (yet another disastrous California policy that I’ll get into some other time). The problem, as Drum points out, is that Democrats would be politically foolish to turn over their ultimate stronghold to a redistricting commission while Tom DeLay is redistricting Texas Democrats out of their seats. It’s a classic coordination problem. We’re collectively better off if every state had competitive districts, but neither party has any incentive to unilaterally weaken its hold on seats it has locked up. Drum suggests that Democrats turn over California to a redistricting commission if Republicans do the same thing in Texas. That’s implausible, but I wonder if it’s constitutionally possible for states to coordinate their actions through some sort of redistricting convention. Think of international treaties that only go into effect if a certain number of countries ratify them. Why couldn’t states do the same thing with redistricting reform?