In 2010, California voters Conduct the chicken coop foxesSeeing that the legislators of Washington and Sacramento would no longer have the power to draw districts of the Congress to adapt themselves.
It was not close.
Proposal 20 was adopted by an unbalanced margin of 61% to 38%, giving the Congress the Drawing Authority at Congress An independent cartography commission and thus finished decades of pro formal elections by Inject the essential competition In California house races.
Now Governor Gavin Newsom is talking about the cancellation of voters’ work.
Newsom said he could seek to cancel the commission, tear the limits it has drawn and let the Democratic supporters write a new set of lines before the mid -term elections next year – everything to push President Trump and the Republicans of Texaswhich tries a gross power to improve the position of the GOP in 2026.
THE The threatened movement is long -term And, more than anything, a stratagem to boost Newsom’s White House ambitions.
He is also very presumptuous on his part, reflecting increased arrogance among the legislators of the country who say to the voters, in fact: “Thank you for your contribution. Now go. “
Take what just happened at Missouri. Last year, 58% of voters approved a voting measure Increase the minimum state wage and oblige employers to provide paid sick leave. This month, Republican governor Mike Kehoe has signed legislation This limited the increase in the minimum wage and completely abandoned the requirement for sick leave.
In two other states, Alaska and Nebraska, legislators have also tried, but failed to cancel the measures adopted by voters on paid sick leave and a hike in the minimum wage.
“It is an overwhelming act of representative democracy when elected officials are afraid of the will of their own voters,” said Alexis Magnan-Callaway of the equity project, a defense group, which focuses on state voting measures.
It is indeed.
But that is part of a model in recent years of the legislators, mainly in the States led by the Republicans, undercoating or working to find measures designed by voters to devote rights to abortion, extend health insurance and increase the minimum wage.
To be clear, these measures have been adopted by voters of all bands: democrats, republicans, independent.
“People transcend the parties of the parties to vote for questions that they know how to have an impact on their communities,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a progressive organization. By ignoring or working to cancel the result, she said, the legislators contribute to “what we see across the country, where people lose confidence in our institutions and to the government”.
And why would they not do it, if politicians are not part of the safeguard to ask for their vote come the electoral time?
In a direct attack on the initiative process, At least nine state legislatures Adopted or envisaged laws during their last session, which makes things more difficult – and perhaps even impossible – for citizens to place measures on the ballot and ask for a popular vote.
There may be problems with direct democracy, as pointed out by Sean Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center for Justice.
“There may be times when systems can be abused to confuse voters,” he said, “or when voters do things without perhaps fully understanding what they are doing, because of the way voting measures are written or summaries of ballot voting are offered.”
But it is one thing to respond to these problems, said Morals-Doyle, and “another thing to say fundamentally that we, as representatives of voters, do not agree with what voters think that the best policy is and we will therefore make it more difficult for them to implement the policy they want.”
In Texas, the Republicans are brandishing their unbalanced power In the hope of erasing up to five seats at the Democratic Congress, stimulating the GOP’s chances of keeping control of the room in mid-term elections of 2026. Trump, fixing the prospect of A majority of the democratic chamber enharmed and the assignmentsupports the whole effort.
This said Newsom, is the reason for combat combat with the California congress card and a gerrymandre the state for Democrats just as flagrant as the Republicans of Texas hoped for it. “We can sit on the sidelines, talk about how the world should be. Or, we can recognize the existential nature that is this moment,” said the governor.
It is terribly difficult to discuss against Correct the Trump error And Its republican catalysts. However, this is not a reason to ignore the express will of California voters with regard to Reining in their own legislators.
Taking the threat of the Gerrymander of Newsom at its nominal value, there are two ways to replace proposal 20.
He could break the law and earn the adoption of legislation resulting in new districts of the Congress, to face an inevitable legal action and to hope to win a favorable decision of the Supreme Court of California. Where he could Call an expensive special election And ask the voters to reverse and eliminate the state -less state -owned redistribution commission, at least for the moment.
It is a difficult sale. It is assumed that Newsom’s message to the Californians would not be: “Let us spend hundreds of millions of your taxes so that you can abandon your power and return it to politicians who work behind the scenes of Washington and Sacramento.”
But this is the essentials of what they would be invited to do, which does not testify to a small amount of pride from Newsom.
If the elections are important – especially in a The time that our democracy therefore spent – Politicians must accept the results, whether or not they love them.
If not, what is the point of having elections?
