The Rose Report

The number of redistricting commission applications is now over 21,000!
Clearly, Californians are eager to tackle the challenge of drawing legislative districts in public for the benefit of the people and voters, not for the incumbents and political insiders.
Acknowledging the surge in interest, the California State Auditor (who is in charge of the application process) extended [...]

Thanks to Rose Friend Tony Quinn for providing the text of SCA 4, California’s Open Primary measure for the June 2010 ballot.
Also, Tony sent along the very interesting ballot label that the legislature ordered printed on the ballots:
“ELECTIONS. PRIMARIES. GREATER PARTICIPATION 1N ELECTIONS. Reforms the primary election process for congressional, statewide, and legislative races. Allows [...]

A number of our earlier posts have noted the high number of ballots cast that are blank on the question of Proposition 11. Here are comparison numbers of blank ballots by contest, based on the Secretary of State’s vote report for 10:22am on November 14th:
Blank Presidential ballots: 1.4%
Proposition 8 (gay marriage): 2.1%
Proposition 4 (parental notification): [...]

Thanks to Shane Goldmacher of Capitol Alert for the link:
Redistricting is an inherently political process, as the adage goes.
So Brian Olson, a computer programmer whose Web site says he works for Google, designed a computer program to automatically draw district boundaries based on the principle that allows people to “have the lowest average distance to [...]

Richard E. Cohen’s article in the National Journal mentions some demographic tensions that are on the increase nationwide, but especially in the greater Los Angeles area:
A usually unspoken aspect of the Democratic campaign’s dynamic, especially in urban areas, is the tension between African-American and Hispanic voters. So-called black-versus-brown conflicts have been especially pronounced in recent [...]

Dan Walters wonders how many people will turn out tomorrow:
It’s been decades since California played a real role in choosing presidential nominees, at least back to 1972 and perhaps 1968, depending on how one judges such things. And turnouts were much higher then, 72.2 percent in 1968 and 71 percent in 1972. But even in [...]

As this post on the now 40-year-old Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) says:
MALDEF was also key in legal actions preventing the dilution of potential Latino influence in the redistricting process.
See our archives for more.

The California Progress Report posts Tony Quinn’s review of Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times by former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

Amy Chance over at Capitol Alert gives some props to “The New Political Geography of California,” edited by Frederick Douzet, Thad Kousser and Rose Institute fellow Ken Miller of Claremont McKenna College. Says Chance:
Among the offerings: “Is California really a blue state?” by academic experts Morris P. Fiorina and Samuel J. Abrams. It explores [...]

Long, long, long shot presidential candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter interviewed by David Shankbone of Mens News Daily on redistricting:
DS You were originally elected as part of the Reagan Revolution and you came from a historically competitive district—DH: Actually a non-competitive district; it was 2 to 1 Democrat. It was so noncompetitive that my opponent announced [...]