Redistricting Plays a Part in Budget Crisis

Last year I took some flak for accusing several Latinos in the state Legislature of making a deal with the devil. I could gloat now that I’ve been proved right by the budgetary chaos and ideological extremism that dominate politics in Sacramento, but I won’t. The spectacle is just too sad -- and is spreading to other states.

The “devil” I referred to was a sharp political consultant named Michael Berman, the younger brother of Rep. Howard Berman (D-North Hollywood). Michael Berman is an expert in the science of political redistricting, which is why he was paid a lot of money in 2001 by incumbent Democrats and Republicans. They asked him to use population data from the 2000 census to draw new district lines for the Legislature and California’s 53-member congressional delegation, being especially careful to give incumbents safe districts where they could easily be reelected.

Michael Berman did his job, but got carried away in trying to protect his big brother from the possibility of a Latino competitor for his San Fernando Valley district. The Bermans’ plan shifted thousands of Latino voters into the adjoining district of Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks). It was an outrageous gerrymander that generated a lawsuit by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Unfortunately, MALDEF’s lawsuit was dismissed by a panel of federal judges who ruled, in effect, that since Latinos had recently made significant political progress in California, any voting-rights discrimination that resulted from the Berman gerrymander was legally tolerable. They also noted that most Latinos in the Legislature had voted for the Bermans’ reapportionment plan. Indeed, with three honorable exceptions, Latino incumbents in Sacramento had gone along with their colleagues in approving the Bermans’ cynical handiwork.

Last week, despite a constitutional deadline and a $38-billion budget shortfall that has earned California the lowest credit rating of all 50 states, the Legislature could not agree on a budget. The gridlock resulted because Democrats refused to abide any more spending cuts and Republicans would not approve even modest tax increases.

Normally a budgetary crisis like this calls forth some pragmatic bipartisan solutions. Because redistricting gave virtually every member of the Legislature such a safe district, however, there is no need for anybody to compromise.

Of course, in a highly charged and heavily publicized political standoff like this, even “safe” districts can be problematic for incumbents. After a while they make it hard for politicians to act like statesmen or stateswomen. Any Democrat who ponders voting for spending cuts could be challenged by a more liberal Democrat in the next primary election; any Republican who votes to raise taxes could face a conservative backlash from anti-tax advocates.

Such is the political mischief that results when incumbents are allowed to oversee the reapportionment of their own districts. Similar mischief is afoot in Texas, where the GOP controls the Legislature and statewide offices, just as the Democrats predominate in California.

Not content with running the Lone Star state, Texas Republicans have been trying to find a way to reapportion the state’s congressional districts to give the GOP a bigger edge than the current 17-15 split in favor of Democrats. The GOP’s heavy-handed attempts at reapportionment got a few laughs from late-night comedians when Democrats in May fled Austin en masse for a Holiday Inn in Oklahoma to deprive Republicans of a quorum.

But the issue of who reapportions Texas, and how, is no more a laughing matter than California’s budget crisis is. And anyone concerned with the political future of the growing Latino population in both states, not to mention Colorado and Arizona, where similar reapportionment standoffs are looming, should be worried too.

There are many reasons for the political gridlock in Sacramento, to be sure, but don’t underestimate the effect of the secret redistricting deal both parties in the Legislature made. Now the devil is getting his due in Sacramento, and a lot sooner than either Democrats or Republicans probably expected.