Parts of this article (those related to initial selection and current status of the district boundary commission) need to be updated. (November 2010) |
Proposition 11 of 2008 (or the Voters FIRST Act) was a law enacted by California voters that placed the power to draw electoral boundaries for State Assembly and State Senate districts in a Citizens Redistricting Commission, as opposed to the State Legislature. To do this the Act amended both the Constitution of California and the Government Code. [1] The law was proposed by means of the initiative process and was put to voters as part of the November 4, 2008 state elections. In 2010, voters passed Proposition 20 which extended the Citizen Redistricting Commission's power to draw electoral boundaries to include U.S. House seats as well.
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 8.8 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
The Constitution of California is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of California, describing the duties, powers, structures and functions of the government of California. Following cession of the area from Mexico to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican–American War, California's original constitution was drafted in both English and Spanish by delegates elected on August 1, 1849, to represent all communities home to non-indigenous citizens. The delegates wrote and adopted the constitution at the 1849 Constitutional Convention, held beginning on September 3 in Monterey, and voters approved the new constitution on November 13, 1849. Adoption of the "state" constitution actually preceded California's Admission to the Union on September 9, 1850 by almost ten months.
In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote in parliament called an indirect initiative or via a direct initiative, the latter then being dubbed a Popular initiated Referendum.
The Act amended Article XXI of the state constitution and enacted Title 2, Division 1, Chapter 3.2 of the Government Code. These changes transfer authority for establishing Assembly, Senate, and Board of Equalization district boundaries from elected representatives to a fourteen-member commission. The commission is chosen as follows:
The commission must include five commissioners of the largest political party in California (in practice the Democrats), five commissioners from the second largest party (currently the Republicans), and four of neither party. For approval, new district boundaries need votes from three commissioners of the largest party, three from the second largest, and three of the commissioners from neither party. The commission may hire lawyers and consultants to assist it in its work.
The California Democratic Party is the state branch of the United States Democratic Party in the state of California. The party is headquartered in Sacramento, and is led by acting-Chair Alex Gallardo-Rooker.
The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the California affiliate of the United States Republican Party. The party is based in Sacramento, and is led by Chairwoman Jessica Patterson.
The state legislature retains responsibility for drawing district boundaries for California's Congressional Districts, but the Act adds additional criteria that the legislature must follow in drawing those boundaries.
California Common Cause was the advocacy group sponsoring the initiative.
AARP is a United States-based interest group whose stated mission is "to empower people to choose how they live as they age." According to the organization, it had more than 38 million members as of 2018.
The League of Women Voters (LWV) is an American civic organization that was formed to help women take a larger role in public affairs after they won the right to vote. It was founded in 1920 to support the new women suffrage rights and was a merger of National Council of Women Voters, founded by Emma Smith DeVoe, and National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote. The League of Women Voters began as a "mighty political experiment" aimed to help newly enfranchised women exercise their responsibilities as voters. Originally, only women could join the league; but in 1973 the charter was modified to include men. LWV operates at the local, state, and national level, with over 1,000 local and 50 state leagues, and one territory league in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American actor, filmmaker, businessman, author, philanthropist, activist, politician, and former professional bodybuilder and powerlifter. He served as the 38th Governor of California, from 2003 to 2011.
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper which has been published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It has the fourth-largest circulation among United States newspapers, and is the largest U.S. newspaper not headquartered on the East Coast. The paper is known for its coverage of issues particularly salient to the U.S. West Coast, such as immigration trends and natural disasters. It has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of these and other issues. As of June 18, 2018, ownership of the paper is controlled by Patrick Soon-Shiong, and the executive editor is Norman Pearlstine.
The San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The paper is currently owned by the Hearst Corporation, which bought it from the de Young family in 2000. It is the only major daily paper covering the city and county of San Francisco.
Notable arguments that have been made in favor of Prop. 11 include:
As of September 24, three campaign committees supporting Prop. 11 have filed officially with the Secretary of State's office. Some donors have contributed to more than one of these committees. The largest donors altogether are:
Michael Rubens Bloomberg KBE is an American businessman, politician, author, and philanthropist. As of March 2019, his net worth was estimated at $55.5 billion, making him the 8th-richest person in the United States and the 9th richest person in the world. He has joined The Giving Pledge, whereby billionaires pledge to give away at least half of their wealth. To date, Bloomberg has given away $8.2 billion, including his November 2018 $1.8 billion gift to Johns Hopkins University for student aid — the largest private donation ever made to a higher education institution.
Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Netflix and serves on the boards of Facebook and a number of non-profit organizations. A former member of the California State Board of Education, Hastings is an advocate for education reform through charter schools.
Netflix, Inc. is an American media-services provider headquartered in Los Gatos, California, founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. The company's primary business is its subscription-based streaming OTT service which offers online streaming of a library of films and television programs, including those produced in-house. As of January 2019, Netflix had over 139 million paid subscriptions worldwide, including 58.49 million in the United States, and over 148 million subscriptions total including free trials. It is available almost worldwide except in mainland China, Syria, North Korea, Iran, and Crimea. The company also has offices in the Netherlands, Brazil, India, Japan, and South Korea. Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
On Monday, March 10, 2008 the Pasadena City Council became the first California city to endorse the proposition. [13]
Kimball Petition Management was paid $2,332,988 from two separate campaign committees to collect signatures to put this measure on the ballot. [14] [15] [16] [17] Signatures to qualify the measure for the California 2008 ballot measures|November 2008 ballot were submitted to election officials on May 6, 2008. On June 17, the California Secretary of State announced that a check of the signatures had established that the measure qualifies for the ballot., [18] [19]
In late August, supporters of Prop. 11 filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission because the California Correctional Peace Officers Association—a group that opposes Prop. 11—gave contributions totaling $577,000 to the Leadership California committee, which is a campaign committee associated with state senate leader Don Perata. The Prop. 11 group said that it was wrong for the police officers union to give the money to the Perata committee rather than directly to the No on 11, and also alleged that the police union was trying to curry favor with Perata. Days later, the FPPC took the rare step of rejecting the complaint without conducting an investigation. [20] [21]
The official committee set up to oppose Proposition 11 was called "Citizens for Accountability; No on Proposition 11". [22] Paul Hefner is the spokesman for the "No on 11" effort. [23]
Arguments that have been claimed in opposition to Prop. 11 include:
Kathay Feng, the main author of the initiative, and director of California Common Cause, said in late June that since the measure qualified for the ballot and the California Democratic Party had announced its opposition, there had been an attempt to bring everybody into line and to encourage those in support of the measure to oppose it. [28]
As of September 24, the opposition committee, "Citizens for Accountability; No on 11", had raised $350,000:
A poll released on July 22, 2008 by Field Poll showed Proposition 11 with 42% support and 30% opposition. [30] A late August poll released by the Public Policy Institute of California showed Prop. 11 with 39% of voters in support. [31]
Month of Poll | Polling company | In Favor | Opposed | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|
July 2008 | Field | 42 percent | 30 percent | 28 percent |
August 2008 | PPIC | 39 percent | 36 percent | 25 percent |
Sept. 2008 | PPIC | 38 percent | 33 percent | 29 percent [32] |
Choice | Votes | % |
---|---|---|
6,095,033 | 50.82 | |
No | 5,897,655 | 49.18 |
Valid votes | 11,992,688 | 87.26 |
Invalid or blank votes | 1,750,489 | 12.74 |
Total votes | 13,743,177 | 100.00 |
Proposition 22 was a law enacted by California voters in March 2000 to prevent marriage between same-sex couples. In May 2008, it was struck down by the California Supreme Court as contrary to the state constitution.
Proposition 62 was a California ballot proposition on the November 2, 2004 ballot. It failed to pass with 5,119,155 (46.1%) votes in favor and 5,968,770 (53.9%) against.
Don Richard Perata is a California Democratic politician, who was President pro tempore of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008. He came in second place in the November 2010 ballot for Mayor of Oakland. Perata now runs a political consultancy company
Proposition 74 (2005) was a ballot proposition in the 2005 California special election that intended to extend probationary periods for the state's public school teachers from two years to five before attaining tenure. It failed at the polls, with 55% of voters rejecting it.
The 2005 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 8. During this off-year election, the only seats up for election in the United States Congress were special elections held throughout the year. None of these congressional seats changed party hands. There were also two gubernatorial races, state legislative elections in two states, numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races in several major cities, and a variety of local offices on the ballot.
California is the most populous U.S. state and as a result has the most representation in the United States House of Representatives, with 53 Representatives. Each Representative represents one congressional district.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is an actor and former bodybuilder who served as Governor of California from November 2003 to January 2011. He was first elected in the 2003 recall election and won re-election in 2006. He previously held non-elected appointments by President George H.W. Bush to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, in which he served from 1990 to 1998 and was chairman of California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor Pete Wilson.
Electoral reform in California refers to efforts to change election and voting laws in the West Coast state of California.
Proposition 4, or the Abortion Waiting Period and Parental Notification Initiative, also known to its supporters as Sarah's Law, was an initiative state constitutional amendment on the 2008 California General Election ballot
Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 California state elections. The proposition was created by opponents of same-sex marriage in advance of the California Supreme Court's May 2008 appeal ruling, In re Marriage Cases, which followed the short-lived 2004 same-sex weddings controversy and found the previous ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Proposition 8 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in 2010, although the court decision did not go into effect until June 26, 2013, following the conclusion of proponents' appeals.
Arizona Proposition 102 was an amendment to the constitution of the state of Arizona adopted by a ballot measure held in 2008. It added Article 30 of the Arizona Constitution, which says: "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state." The amendment added a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to existing statutory bans in place since 1996. In October 2014, Article 30 of the Arizona Constitution was struck down as unconstitutional in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, and is no longer enforced by the state of Arizona, which now allows and recognizes same-sex marriages.
Proposition 3 is a law that was enacted by California voters by means of the initiative process. It is a bond issue that authorizes $980 million in bonds, to be repaid from state’s General Fund, to fund the construction, expansion, remodeling, renovation, furnishing and equipping of children’s hospitals. The annual payment on the debt authorized by the initiative is approximately $64 million a year. Altogether, the measure would cost about $1.9 billion over 30 years out of California's general fund.
California Proposition 7, would have required California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025. In order to make that goal, levels of production of solar, wind and other renewable energy resources would more than quadruple from their current output of 10.9%. It would also require California utilities to increase their purchase of electricity generated from renewable resources by 2% annually to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements of 40% in 2020 and 50% in 2025. Current law AB32 requires an RPS of 20% by 2010.
The California state elections, November 2010 were held on November 2, 2010.
Proposition 23 was a California ballot proposition that was on the November 2, 2010 California statewide ballot. It was defeated by California voters during the statewide election by a 23% margin. If passed, it would have suspended AB 32, a law enacted in 2006, legally referred to its long name, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Sponsors of the initiative referred to their measure as the California Jobs Initiative while opponents called it the Dirty Energy Prop.
A California Congressional Redistricting Initiative, Proposition 20 was on the November 2, 2010 ballot in California. It was approved by 61.2% of voters. Election officials announced on May 5 that the proposition had collected sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot. The measure is known by its supporters as the VOTERS FIRST Act for Congress.
Proposition 27 was an unsuccessful ballot proposition on the November 2, 2010 ballot in California, placed there by the initiative process. If approved, this measure would have repealed California Proposition 11 (2008), which authorized the creation of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw the electoral boundaries for State Assembly and State Senate districts. It would also have modified the provision in California law that says that proposed congressional districts can't be subjected to a veto referendum.
The California state elections was held on Election Day, November 6, 2012. On the ballot were eleven propositions, various parties' nominees for the United States presidency, the Class I Senator to the United States Senate, all of California's seats to the House of Representatives, all of the seats of the State Assembly, and all odd-numbered seats of the State Senate.
Redistricting in California has historically been highly controversial. Critics have accused legislators of attempting to protect themselves from competition by gerrymandering districts. Conflicts between the governor and the legislature during redistricting often have only been resolved by the courts.
California Proposition 6 was a measure that was submitted to California voters as part of the November 2018 election. The ballot measure proposed a repeal of the Road Repair and Accountability Act, which is also known as Senate Bill 1. The measure failed with about 57% of the voters against and 43% in favor.