California Proposition 11 (2008)

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. 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.

Provisions

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:

#Government auditors select sixty registered voters from an applicant pool.
#Legislative leaders are permitted to reduce the pool.
#Auditors then pick eight commission members by lottery, and those commissioners pick six additional members for a total of fourteen.

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 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.

Supporters

California Common Cause was the advocacy group sponsoring the initiative.

Others supporting the initiative include

* AARP
* NAACP California State Conference
* The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
* The League of Women Voters
* Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Republican)
* Former Governor Gray Davis (Democrat)
* Former State Controller Steve Westly
* California Chamber of Commerce
* California Common Cause
* California Forward Action Fund
* California Business Roundtable
* ACLU - Southern California
* Bay Area Council
* Bay Area Leadership Council
* California Black Chamber of Commerce
* California Police Chiefs Association
* League of California Cities
* California Democratic Council
* California Republican Assembly
* California Small Business Association
* California Taxpayers' Association
* California Conference of Carpenters
* Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
* IndependentVoice.Org
* National Federation of Independent Business, California
* North San Diego County NAACP
* Neighborhoods for Clean Elections
* Santa Clara Cities Association
* Silicon Valley Leadership Group
* Small Business Action Committee
* California Association of Health Underwriters

Newspaper Editorial boards in favor

* The ''Los Angeles Times''
*The ''San Francisco Chronicle''
* ''San Jose Mercury News''
* ''Fresno Bee''
* ''The Torrance Daily Breeze''
* ''San Diego Union Tribune''
* ''Pasadena Now''
* ''LA Daily News''
* ''North County Times''
* ''Stockton Record''
* ''San Gabriel Valley Tribune''
* ''Santa Cruz Sentinel''
* ''Lompoc Record''

Arguments in favor of Prop. 11

Notable arguments that have been made in favor of Prop. 11 include:

* Under current law the legislature draws its own districts which results in 99 percent of incumbents being re-elected
* Partisan gridlock caused by the current way of drawing legislative districts has caused the legislature to underperform in its mission of serving the people of California.,
* State legislative contests held in districts drawn by a Proposition 11 commission would be more competitive, leading to voters electing more moderate legislators.

Donors supporting Prop 11

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:

* Gov. Schwarzenegger's California Dream Team, $2,446,000.
* Charles Munger Jr., son of billionaire Charles Munger, $1 million
* Michael Bloomberg (the mayor of New York City), $250,000.
* Howard Lester (of Williams-Sonoma), $250,000.
* Brian Harvey, president of Cypress Land Company, $250,000.
* Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix, $250,000
* New Majority California PAC, $237,500.
* Meg Whitman, CEO, eBay, $200,000.
* William Bloomfield, $150,000

City of Pasadena endorses

On Monday, March 10, 2008 the Pasadena City Council became the first California city to endorse the proposition.

Path to the ballot

Kimball Petition Management was paid $2,332,988 from two separate campaign committees to collect signatures to put this measure on the ballot. 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.,

Supporters file campaign financing complaint

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

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