Redistricting Reform Revisited

Abstract

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Commentary Redistricting Reform Revisited Matthew Jarvis California State University, Fullerton In the first issue of the California Journal of Politics and Policy in 2009, Justin Buchler and I engaged in a de- bate over whether redistricting reform was an appropriate tool to help solve the dysfunction of California’s govern- ment (Buchler 2009; Jarvis 2009). With the release of the final versions of the maps drafted by the California Citi- zens’ Redistricting Commission (CRC), we felt that a reas- sessment of our arguments was in order. Before I turn to that task, let me briefly summarize our arguments. In 2009, I argued that, “While districts are not neces- sarily the primary cause of California’s budget woes, redis- tricting provides one of the only feasible solutions” (Jar- Copyright © 2011 The Berkeley Electronic Press. All rights reserved. www.bepress.com/cjpp Volume 3, Issue 3, 2011 vis 2009, abstract). In essence, my argument was one of desperation. In my analysis, I concluded that the voters of California seemed very unlikely to approve of any changes to the fundamental causes of the legislature and governor being unable to produce realistic or timely budgets. The main culprit for this state of affairs was the combination of ideologically rigid partisanship in the legislature and a two-thirds rule for passing the budget. Previous attempts to change the nature of the two-thirds rule for budgets (either the rule directly or similar restrictions on tax in- creases) had failed, and polling indicated that the idea of a supermajority requirement was appealing to Californians. While redistricting was hardly the biggest contributor to partisan polarization, other causes (like residential se- lection, interest groups, media coverage, and ideological sorting) admitted to no ready solution. Thus, in that paper, I argued that redistricting reform—in particular, creating more districts that were competitive—while not the most effective remedy or even directly related to the problem, was likely the best solution available. In essence, the argu-