California’s Tea Party Patriots likely to support Proposition 20 and oppose Proposition 27

Dawn Wildman, California State Co-Coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, told Etopia News today that her fellow movement activists “like the idea of the Citizens Redistricting Commission(CRC).”

The CRC was created in 2008 by the passage of Proposition 11. It takes redistricting authority over State Assembly, Senate, and Board of Equalization districts away from the State Legislature and gives it to a panel of 14 individuals, to be selected by the California State Auditor's office, representative of the state's population.

She said that they were “annoyed” to be having to vote on Proposition 20, which expands the authority of the CRC to include Congressional redistricting, since they’ve just recently voted on essentially the same thing. Nevertheless, she says that opinion in her group is tending toward a “Yes” vote on Proposition 20 and a “No” vote on Proposition 27, which would abolish the CRC and return all redistricting authority to the State Legislature.

The Tea Party Patriots are currently engaged in a period of study and discussion of the various ballot initiatives, and are looking to determine what the group’s consensus positions on these measures ought to be. One hundred and eighty-six local Tea Party Patriot (TPP) groups are involved in this process, which will close on Tuesday, September 7th. Ms. Wildman said that the TPP would announce the results of this consultative process the next day, on Wednesday, September 8th.

She also said that the proposition of most interest to her group was Proposition 23, which would repeal AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. “We helped to get it on the ballot,” she said, and added that the TPP would be using “rallies, bumper stickers, and information distribution” to get it passed, including a rally in Sacramento on September 12th.

Also important to the TPP is Proposition 24, on which she said the building trend in the party was for a “No” vote, since that measure “repeals corporate tax breaks.”

One ballot initiative that doesn’t seem to have a strong TPP consensus either way is Proposition 19, which would allow the recreational use of marijuana while authorizing local jurisdictions to tax its sale.

While there is opposition to the measure among some TPP members, others, Ms. Wildman said, especially those who came of age in the 60s, “don’t consider pot a gateway drug,” and want it legally-available and heavily-taxed, perhaps as a way of reducing the need for other taxes. Still, she said, many in the party are worried that the passage of Proposition 19 would lead to the creation of another bureaucracy and more regulation, which is anathema to the Tea Party Patriots.

Despite their likely support for Proposition 20 and likely opposition to Proposition 27, she said, the TPP will “probably not” devote much energy to these measures, but will concentrate instead on securing the passage of Proposition 23, the anti-AB 32 measure.

How diverse is the current applicant pool for the Citizens Redistricting Commission?

In an Etopia News article published yesterday (“Haim Saban's loan to Proposition 27 has been paid back”), Mr. Saban was quoted as saying that he had decided to switch his previous position of support for Proposition 11 to support for FAIR/Proposition 27 “because the state’s diverse population has not been adequately represented in the process of selecting members of an independent commission.”

Proposition 11, passed by California voters in 2008, transferred responsibility for redrawing the legislative and Board of Equalization district lines from the California State Legislature to the people in the form of a new Citizens Redistricting Commission. Proposition 27 on the November 2, 2010, ballot, would transfer that responsibility back to the State Legislature.

In an August 21, 2010 press release, the California State Auditor’s Applicant Review Panel, the body tasked with identifying 60 of the most qualified applicants for California’s first Citizens Redistricting Commission, announced that it “is holding public meetings to interview the 120 applicants remaining in the pool.”

According to this press release, “The Panel began the public meetings to interview the remaining applicants on Friday, August 6th. Interviews continue through Friday, September 10th….

“The 120 applicants consist of 40 registered Democrats, 40 registered Republicans, and 40 who are registered as decline-to-state or with another party. Of that applicant sub pool, 47 percent are women, 12 percent are African-American, 27 percent are Latino, 14 percent are Asian-American or Pacific Islander, 5 percent are American Indian and 37 percent are Caucasian.”

For additional information about the applicant pool members' race/ethnicity, gender, party affiliation, geographic location, and income, see the spreadsheet here.

Haim Saban's loan to Proposition 27 has been paid back

Haim Saban is a remarkable entrepreneur and businessman with unprecedented influence in political affairs. According to a Saban spokesperson:

“While Mr. Saban supported the passage of Proposition 11 in 2008 as a good idea, it hasn’t worked out as intended because the state’s diverse population has not been adequately represented in the process of selecting members of an independent commission. Accordingly, Mr. Saban does not support expanding the commission concept to Congressional redistricting and has agreed to make a loan to support the qualification of the FAIR ballot initiative.”

The “FAIR ballot initiative” (explained here in an Etopia News video interview with its Chief Proponent, UCLA Law School Professor Daniel Lowenstein) is now Proposition 27 on the November, 2010, California ballot.

As mentioned in the quote above and as reported in the Sacramento Bee on April 13, 2010, Mr. Saban loaned FAIR/Proposition 27 $2,000,000. In an August 31, 2010, e-mail to Etopia News, his spokesperson wrote, “To confirm, Mr. Saban provided a loan, which has now been fully paid back.”

Etopia News is waiting to hear back from the "Yes on 27" campaign in response to its question of the source of the money that paid back Mr. Saban’s loan.

Ted Ko at FIT Coalition updates the battle for a feed-in tariff

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Ted Ko, Associate Director of the FIT Coalition, talks about PURPA, FERC, CPUC, and REESA, and about his group's efforts to implement a feed-in tariff policy in California and the US, recored August 31, 2010

Derek Cressman at Common Cause on Props. 11, 20, and 27

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Derek Cressman, Western State Regional Director of Common Cause, explains three ballot propositions, the already-passed Prop. 11 and the pending Propositions 20 and 27, which would impact the way California's legislative districts are determined, recorded from Sacramento, California, on August 24, 2010

Joe Mathews and Mark Paul discuss "California Crackup"

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co-authors Joe Mathews and Mark Paul talk about California's governmental gridlock and ways to solve it in this discussion of their "California Crackup: ; How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It," recorded remotely on August 20, 2010

David Irvine at UEG on the successful completion of the initiative circulation process

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David Irvine, co-counsel of Utahns for Ethical Government, talks about the successful submission of sufficient voter signatures on an initiative petition for the enactment of a strong ethics-in-government law for the State of Utah, recorded on August 12, 2010