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| Title and Summary | Analysis | Arguments and Rebuttals | Text of Proposed Law |
PROP |
REDISTRICTING. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE. |
| ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF PROPOSITION 11 |
ARGUMENT AGAINST PROPOSITION 11 |
THE POLITICIANS WANT TO CONFUSE VOTERS, BUT THE CHOICE IS SIMPLE: Bipartisan Groups Urge You to Vote YES on Prop. 11, FOR CHANGE in Sacramento. Good government, senior, consumer, business, and taxpayer organizations are asking you to vote YES on Prop. 11 (note some of the signers of this ballot argument). The Politicians Oppose Change and Want You to Vote NO. On the NO side of this measure are politicians, political insiders, and political party elites who will do or say almost anything to stop change and protect the status quo. YES ON PROP. 11: CHANGE IN SACRAMENTO There is a serious conflict of interest when legislators are allowed to draw their own district boundaries. They divide up neighborhoods and communities to create districts where they are virtually guaranteed reelection. Once elected, these politicians aren’t accountable to voters because they don’t have to earn our votes. Instead, they pay more attention to the special interests. “The current system where politicians draw their own districts is rigged to make sure they get reelected. Prop. 11 will put voters back in charge and make it easier to vote them out of office if they’re not doing their job.” — Pete Constant, Retired San Jose Police Officer YES ON PROP. 11: PUT VOTERS IN CHARGE Prop. 11 will end this conflict of interest by establishing an independent citizens commission to draw districts so that they are fair. Standards required by this measure will assure that districts are drawn so they don’t divide neighborhoods and communities. The commission will include Democrats, Republicans, and independents, and the process will be open to the public. This will assure a balanced, inclusive process that produces fair districts. “If legislators don’t have to compete to get reelected, they have no accountability to voters. That means they don’t have to work together to solve problems like education, health care, roads, crime, and the state budget. Prop. 11 will keep politicians tuned-in to voter needs.” — Jodi Serrano, Public School Teacher, Sacramento YES ON PROP. 11: HOLD THE POLITICIANS ACCOUNTABLE Many of the problems we face in California are a direct result of politicians not being accountable to voters. When they draw their own districts, we end up with gridlock and nothing gets done. “It’s time to send the politicians a message and change Sacramento. That’s why I’m voting YES on Prop. 11.” Proposition 11 will help end the gridlock and force the politicians to start solving problems. If they don’t, we can vote them out of office because they’ll have to run in fair districts. "Democrats, Republicans, independents, and people from every walk of life and every corner of the state support Prop. 11 to send a strong message to politicians that it's time to quit playing games and work together to get California back on track." – Eligio Nava, President, Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce PLEASE JOIN US IN VOTING YES ON PROP. 11. Check it out for yourself: YesonProp11.org JANIS R. HIROHAMA, President REBUTTAL TO ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF PROPOSITION 11 WHAT THE POLITICIANS WON’T TELL YOU ABOUT PROP. 11 They’re selling Prop. 11 as a cure-all—and hoping you won’t check the label. THEY WON’T TELL YOU WHAT PROP. 11 IS REALLY ABOUT. Their high-priced consultants hope you won’t read their 4,500-word initiative. If you do, you’ll see Prop. 11 for what it is: a scheme to change the Constitution and give the power of drawing districts to people who are NEVER ELECTED and NEVER ACCOUNTABLE. THEY WON’T TELL YOU HOW PROP. 11 WORKS. They never explain why Prop. 11 guarantees members of the two political parties more say than the rest of us. They won’t explain how bureaucrats and politicians decided who’s in charge. THEY WON’T TELL YOU WHAT PROP. 11 WILL COST. Prop. 11 creates a new bureaucracy to draw districts—on top of the people we already pay for the job. They will spend millions of dollars—and no audits to account for their money. THEY WON'T TELL YOU WHAT THEY REALLY WANT. The politicians backing Prop. 11 have taken more contributions from special interests than any politicians in California history. But they don't trust voters to elect the right people—so they're trying to change the rules to help themselves. BEFORE YOU VOTE Ask yourself: What's this about? How would it really work? How much will this cost? And most important of all—who's really behind this, and what do they really want? Read Prop. 11 for yourself. And vote NO. www.NoOnProp11.org HENRY L. "HANK" LACAYO, State President |
Faced with real problems—budget deficits, rising gas prices, and a shaky economy—what do the politicians bring us? Prop. 11—another nonsensical scheme to change how we draw lines between one district and another. What are they thinking? Redistricting may not mean much to you, but for some politicians, it’s all they care about. Five times, they’ve spent millions on lawyers, consultants, and paid signature gatherers to put a new scheme on the ballot. Every time, voters said “NO.” The forces behind Prop. 11 don’t respect California’s voters, so they’re back again. What do they REALLY want? Power for themselves, at your expense. They know redistricting is about power. They want to rewrite our Constitution to suit themselves. PROP. 11 UNDERMINES DEMOCRACY Prop. 11 gives the final say for the entire state to a 14-member “redistricting commission” never elected by the people. You don’t get a choice. There’s no guarantee they’ll represent you or your neighbors. That’s why community organizations oppose Prop. 11. Prop. 11 sets aside 10 of the 14 commission seats for partisan members of the two biggest political parties—and gives them veto power over almost every decision. If the big party representatives don’t go along—nothing gets done. What does that mean? Political insiders will keep carving up the state to serve their own interests. PROP. 11 GIVES POWER TO BUREAUCRATS Prop. 11 doesn’t keep politicians out of redistricting—it just lets them hide behind a tangled web of bureaucrats picked for their political ties. It actually takes state auditors off the job of rooting out government waste to spend time screening commission applications. Who picks the commission? Bureaucrats. They decide who’s qualified. And then the four most powerful legislators can reject anyone they want. That’s reform? PROP. 11 MEANS TWO BUREAUCRACIES INSTEAD OF ONE Prop. 11 only gives this new commission half the job. It leaves the other half—drawing Congressional districts—to the state Legislature. So Prop. 11 means paying for two of everything: two sets of attorneys, two teams of consultants, working out of two different offices—with neither one working together or sharing resources. PROP. 11 PROVIDES NO ACCOUNTABILITY TO TAXPAYERS Prop. 11 guarantees each commission member $300 a day, plus expenses, with no limit. There’s also no limit on how many attorneys, consultants, and staff the commission hires, or how much it spends for offices, hearings, and outreach. And there’s nothing requiring auditors to examine the commission’s spending for waste and abuse. PROP. 11 AN EMPTY PROMISE Read it yourself. It makes big promises, but never delivers. Voters get no say over who draws districts. Instead, we get a new bureaucracy with no accountability and no spending limits. Prop. 11 really means a lot of political insiders keep their power—a few get even more—and the rest of us get less. That's not reform—that's a hidden agenda that does nothing to address the real problems facing our state. Visit www.noonprop11.org—and vote NO! DANIEL H. LOWENSTEIN, Former Chair California Federation of Teachers REBUTTAL TO ARGUMENT AGAINST PROPOSITION 11 YES on 11—STOP THE POLITICIANS’ CONFLICT OF INTEREST. YES on 11 ends the conflict of interest of politicians drawing their own election districts. It means fair election districts drawn by citizens, not politicians, so we can hold them accountable and throw them out of office if they aren’t doing their jobs. A “no” vote means politicians continue drawing their own districts and more gridlock in Sacramento. POLITICIANS ARE BEHIND THE MISLEADING “NO” CAMPAIGN. Here’s what newspapers say: “ . . . Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, is leading a campaign of deception against it. His committee is called “Citizens for Accountability—No on the Power Grab,” which is ironic because its obvious purpose is to preserve incumbents’ stranglehold on power.” San Jose Mercury News, 7-7-08 " . . . he's [Perata] working to kill reform—just as he always has, on issue after issue, year after year." San Diego Union Tribune, 7-7-08 YES on 11—PUTS VOTERS FIRST. YES on 11 creates a diverse, qualified, independent commission that will draw fair districts that truly respect California's communities and neighborhoods for the first time. YES on 11—IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE. YES on 11 sends a message to politicians that voters have had enough, and it's time for change. Proposition 11 will put voters back in charge and force politicians to work together to solve real problems like healthcare, education, water, the budget, and the high cost of food and gas. Democrats, Republicans, independents, and community groups support Proposition 11. YES on 11. KATHAY FENG, Executive Director |
Arguments printed on this page are the opinions of the authors and have not been checked for accuracy by any official agency.
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