The Rose Report

In 2008, California voters approved Proposition 11’s call for a commission that “reflects this state’s diversity, including, but not limited to, racial, ethnic, geographic, and gender.” In its work so far this year, the State Auditor’s Applicant Review Panel clearly achieved that goal.

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A June 1st article in the San Bernardino Sun quoted Rose Institute Fellow Douglas Johnson discussing the influx of funding into Inland Empire campaigns as the elections draw closer. The article is titled “Developers invest in local elections” and it discusses how the recent growth in the Inland Empire has drawn donors to the area.

According to the article, Johnson noted that “developers tend to be interested in campaigns in cities where they already have an investment.” He says, “sometimes [developers] give where they are developing, where they own the land already and where they’re working on plans [...] Developers don’t really go into towns they don’t own land in yet.” The article also quotes Rose Institute Senior Fellow Jack Pitney. (more…)

A May 16^th article in the San Jose Mercury News quoted Rose Institute Associate Director Professor Ken Miller discussing the campaigns of various gubernatorial candidates in California. The article, titled “A glut of Bay Area candidates reaches out to vote-rich Southern California,” details how the conservative candidates are focusing on the Inland Empire and Central Valley where the Republican population centers of the state are located. (more…)

The following is an article written by Rose Institute Board member Tony Quinn. It was originally featured in Capital Morning Report on July 18.

The Secretary of State has just released final turnout numbers for the June primary, and they show the strengthening of a trend that is rapidly changing the timing and tactics of all political campaigns. The numbers show that a majority (58 percent) voted absentee; that is, they voted by mail. This is virtually identical to the 59 percent of mail voters in the 2008 primary and should come as no surprise. The percentage of mail ballots has been rising steadily through the years, and has mushroomed in recent elections. In the comparable 2006 primary, 47 percent voted by mail; in 2002 it was 26 percent. (more…)

California’s Applicant Review Panel meets today to finalize the 120 Citizens Redistricting Commission applicants whom the ARP will invite for interviews. On Monday, ARP identified the 40 “other” (not registered with the Republican party or with the Democratic party) applicants invited for interviews. On Tuesday the ARP identified the 40 Republicans it will interview. The ARP also tentatively approved 17 Democratic applicants who have the unanimous recommendation of all three ARP members. Today the ARP will select the final 23 Democrats it will invite for interviews.

Among the 97 interviewees selected through Tuesday:

• 45 are male (46 percent) and 52 are female (54 percent).
• 13 are Asian American (13 percent), 23 are Latino (24 percent), 6 are Native American (6 percent), 9 are African American (9 percent) 1 is Pacific Islander (1 percent) and 6 are “Other” (6 percent). (more…)

Today California’s Applicant Review Panel meets with the goal of identifying the 120 individuals the panel will invite for interviews. Follow the action on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RoseInstitute or watch the live meeting here. These 120 semi-finalists, consisting of 40 Democrats, 40 Republicans, and 40 voters not registered with either major party, will then be interviewed in the weeks to come. Half of them (60) will constitute the final Applicant Review Panel pool.

From the original 30,725 applications, 314 applicants remain. Of those, 72 received “Yes” votes from all three members of the Applicant Review Panel at its last meeting. It is expected, but not yet official, that all of those 72 will advance to interviews, leaving only 48 remaining spots in the final 120. (more…)

A May 25th article in the Pasadena Star-News quoted Rose Institute Fellow Douglas Johnson discussing pension plans for public employees in Monrovia. Titled “Group wants to abolish property tax in Monrovia and cut off funding for city employee pensions”, the article quotes Johnson explaining the current pension plan and contrasting it with pension plans in the private sector.  (more…)

In Florida, Judge James Shelfer removed redistricting-related Amendment 7 from the November ballot. Judge Shelfer ruled that the Republican-controlled state legislature’s proposed Amendment 7’s “failure to inform the public [was] clearly and convincingly an attempt to hide the ball” about the measure’s true aims. The legislature put Amendment 7 on the ballot in response to redistricting reform measures from FairDistricts Florida. The Rose Institute discussed the competing proposals in earlier posts here and here.

The suit against Amendment 7 focused on the amendment’s clarity. The attorney representing the Florida House of Representatives argued that Amendment 7 merely created “additional standards that [went] with the standards that presently exist.” Opponents of Amendment 7 believe the amendment would allow the state legislature to bypass the provisions of FairDistricts’s proposed Amendment 5 and Amendment 6. Ron Meyer, the attorney for the Florida state NAACP, argued that the “amendment is nothing if not deceptive, if not unintelligible…[the state legislature] could have…made [it] a very simple, straightforward amendment….and they chose not to do that for the very purpose of being able to hide the impacts.” (more…)

On July 1st, the brief application period for the City of San Diego redistricting commission began. Applications will be accepted until August 2nd. The criteria and selection process are detailed in Section 5.1 of the City Charter, available here. Application forms are available at the website of the City Clerk.

San Diego’s City Charter requires that a Redistricting Commission be created at the beginning of every decade with the purpose of setting boundaries for City Council districts. The 2010 Commission will be the second independent redistricting commission in the city’s history. The final report from the 2001 Redistricting Commision is available here. (more…)

A new ballot initiative that creates an independent commission to create state legislative districts was approved to begin collecting signatures today. The proposal, developed by the North Dakota League of Women Voters, would create an eight-member bipartisan commission, with seven members appointed by the chief administrative judges of North Dakota and the chair selected by a committee of Republican and Democratic lawmakers in conjunction with the chairman of the geography department at the University of North Dakota.

Currently, the North Dakota legislature redistricts itself every ten years by the standard legislative process, with the bill subject to a gubernatorial veto. The new commission, while accepting legislative input, would not be required to implement any of the legislature’s suggestions, nor would the legislature vote on the commission’s plan. The commission itself would be required to hold regular public meetings during the redistricting process.

The initiative’s supporters will have to gather 25,688 valid signatures before August 4 in order to place the measure on the 2010 ballot. Should they fail, they will have another year in order to make the 2012 general primary ballot, or sooner if a special election is called after they have collected a sufficient number of signatures.

The Bismarck Tribune noted:

An amendment similar to the League of Women Voters’ initiative was introduced in the North Dakota House during the 2009 Legislature, sponsored by state Rep. Corey Mock, D-Grand Forks, who is the Democratic candidate for secretary of state. It was defeated, 58-34, with Republicans opposing the plan and Democrats favoring it.