TAKE ACTION
Housing advocates are blessed with many good friends on both sides of the aisle in the California Legislature. These are people who understand the benefits of housing to our state's economy and the well being of its people. But increasingly, our friends find it takes a considerable political toll to stand with us.
Why? Because our current election process tends to place more and more legislators in office who are more beholden to party politics than they are to the people of California. When a legislator refuses to toe the party line, they find themselves stripped of key chairmanships or even locked out of their own offices. Come election time, they find that the party coffers are opened to those more willing to dance to the party tune.
The problem is that we have allowed our legislative districts to become so gerrymandered that most of the Legislature is composed of so-called "safe" districts. This means that the district lines have been drawn to assure a victory for one party or the other. Come election time, the real contest in those districts is to win the primary against other opponents within the same "safe" party.
As a result, winners tend to exemplify the most radical elements of their party's philosophy. We have Republicans who get elected on a "no-taxes-no-way-no-time" philosophy, and Democrats who see all housing as the enemy, and a cash cow waiting to be milked. Until such time that we can create legislative districts that encourage the election of people who place problem-solving and the good of the people above partisan politics, the problem will get worse year by year.
Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing a plan for redistricting California. Whether or not you like the details of his plan, the time has come to address this problem.
Please send this letter to the governor, your assembly member and your state senator asking them to support redistricting reform.
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This letter will be sent to the following individual(s):
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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, your assembly member and your state senator.
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