We are very fortunate to live in a state where, when public leadership fails to provide solutions to pressing public issues, private leadership can rise to the occasion and help through the initiative process.
Legislative logjam sends coalitions down the initiative trail
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
December 10, 2007
SACRAMENTO — It's a sign of ineptitude within the state Capitol that two disparate coalitions of interest groups have launched ballot initiative campaigns to do what the elected representatives should have done.
Two high-profile issues are involved: water supply and legislative redistricting.
The Capitol hang-up over water is that Republicans and Democrats don't trust each other. Republicans insist that any bond money to pay for dam building be doled out by some entity independent of the Democrat-controlled Legislature. But Democrats don't trust anyone to spend the money wisely without legislative oversight.
With redistricting, the legislative stumbling block is the reluctance of many Democrats to surrender their gerrymandering power to shape districts to benefit themselves.
In both cases, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has failed to exert enough leadership to forge a compromise.
And the outside interests have run out of patience.
The interests also have almost run out of time if they're to qualify their measures for next November's ballot. They need to get official titles from Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and begin circulating petitions sometime next month in order to turn in enough signatures around May to qualify for November. So they kicked off their efforts publicly last week.
There's nothing new about this scenario, of course. Our officeholders' inability to solve real problems and to reform themselves increasingly has led to policy making by initiative, or at least the attempt.
