If we Recall Gavin Newsom, what will change? A new Governor, more than likely a Democrat and the bad policies will continue, with a new face. The Recall is a start to the healing process Californians need. But, it is only a start. We need to fix the entire governmental structure of the State. That starts with the legislature. Thanks to a weak Republican Party—no voter registration, so far 19 legislative seats without a GOP’er on the ballot for March (expect many more races in November without a Republican on the ballot), 18 in the Assembly, 7 in Congress and 10 in the State Senate.
Nebraska has a unicameral legislature, it started by a constitutional amendment in 1934. This is a well-run State, low taxes and a State government that allows people freedom to run their businesses and lives with little interference from government. Maybe we need to get “radical” and try a Unicameral—certainly the present system is a massive failure.
“Petitions for Ballot Initiative 1874-19-0012, are now being circulated for signatures, with Title & Summary that reads: Replaces State Senate and Assembly with Single House Legislature: Increases Number of Legislators. Initiative Constitutional Amendment: Replaces current State Senate and Assembly of 40 Senators and 80 Assembly Members with a Non-Partisan single-house legislature starting in 2022, Initially consisting of 250 legislators. Starting in 2024, the single-house legislature would have one legislator for every 80,000 to 100,000 persons in California. The number of legislators would be updated every ten years to reflect population changes as reported by the National Census. Legislators in the single-house legislature would serve four-year terms, and could server no more than twelve years.”
I urge you to look into this and if you feel, as I do, that the present system is broken, then go to www.ARR4all.com and find out more. This is a serious effort from the grassroots.
Recall of Newsom Is Only One Part of the Fix for California
TERRY L GHERARDI, Americans Restoring Representation, 1/2/19
People have been lining up in droves across the state to sign the petition to Recall Governor Gavin Newsom, but unbeknown to most, signature gathering is now underway for an initiative that takes the needed Fix for California one step further by restructuring the legislative system and body aka the State Legislature.
As with the United States House of Representatives, the State Legislature is suppose to be the House of the People. Government is the servant of the People who founded it and who pay for it, not the other way around. In 1849, when the population of California was an estimated 90,000, the writers of the California Constitution established this state as a Republic with two houses (Bicameral) and capped the Assembly at 80 and Senate at 40 – or one assembly member for every 1,125 citizens and 1 Senator for every 2,250 citizens.
Fast forward to today where the population has grown to just under 40 million, but the state legislature and bureaucratic hierarchy has refused to lessen their power by amending the Constitution to give citizens more representation. Sadly, most people are not even aware that our states ratio of representation is 1 Assembly member for every 500,000 and 1 State Senator for every 1 million. In fact California has the worst ratio of representation of all 50 states. The U.S. Congress has a better ratio of representation than the California State Senate.
But Here’s the Good News – Help is on the way!
Fortunately, in 1911 the Governor and State Legislature gave citizens the right to Recall and introduce Legislation through the Initiative process. Although most are not big fans of finding multiple propositions on their ballots every election, a group of concerned California citizens decided to take it upon themselves to use that power given to the people by using the initiative process to increase the numbers in the Legislature to take the People’s House from the Bureaucrats and Special interests.
Petitions for Ballot Initiative 1874-19-0012, are now being circulated for signatures, with Title & Summary that reads: Replaces State Senate and Assembly with Single House Legislature: Increases Number of Legislators. Initiative Constitutional Amendment: Replaces current State Senate and Assembly of 40 Senators and 80 Assembly Members with a Non-Partisan single-house legislature starting in 2022, Initially consisting of 250 legislators. Starting in 2024, the single-house legislature would have one legislator for every 80,000 to 100,000 persons in California. The number of legislators would be updated every ten years to reflect population changes as reported by the National Census. Legislators in the single-house legislature would serve four-year terms, and could server no more than twelve years.
As mentioned previously, California is a Bicameral legislature and has an Assembly and a Senate, just like Washington. Yes, 2 houses, but not like Washington. In the 1960’s the U.S. Supreme Court decided that acres and rocks don’t vote so they removed State Senates from being elected to counties and made its members elected by population, making the 2 houses essentially the same except for term of office and size of District. After the 1964 Supreme Court ruling, numerous states attempted to change their legislative system from Bicameral to Unicameral (1 house), but all failed, because Legislators did not want to give up their power.
The State of Nebraska has had a single house since 1935 and operates just fine as a Representative form of government. Nebraskans claim it is less expensive to run a single house, the checks and balances are still in place between the Legislature and the Governor, and they find there is less influence by Special Interests. Under the Unicameral system, the legislature has pared down their committees from 61 to 18, lessening the time to pass legislation. As one Nebraskan said, “the salvation of the State is watchfulness in the citizenry. Nebraska’s ratio of representation is 1 per 35,000.
How was the Ratio of One Representative for 80,000 Chosen? Only the future will decide if this ratio is correct. What is fact is that a fixed number cannot be set because it will only have the same problem created in 1849. Ratios of population to District must be used to allow for growth or decline in population to keep the House Membership responsive to the Constituent.
A population too large or too small can create its own problems, such as, too small and the district becomes run by nepotism or cronyism and is too easily controlled by Special Interests; too large and costs are far higher for candidates to run for office, often preventing well intentioned, qualified candidates from seeking office. Smaller districts allow voters to be more informed and make better decisions. A state legislator representing 80,000 citizens is more apt to find their feet held to the fire, should they not fulfill their promises, then one representing 500,000 and a million. In a large stage such as California, 80,000 and 100,000 seemed to strike a balance between too small and too large in today’s electronic environment. A group of approximately 500 legislators is a big enough increase to be effective while also small enough to not be overwhelming.
Isn’t More Legislators More Government? No. The Legislative Analysis Office says the restructure of the legislature will cost millions upon millions. California spends millions upon millions for bad government decisions that the people have no control over. Let’s spend a few millions to include accommodations in the already budgeted and planned enlargement of the Capitol Annex, projected to be large enough to house more than 1,250 legislative and executive staff. How about cutting the individual legislator’s salary commensurate to the size of the District and fewer expenses for office staff and travel. More legislators isn’t more government, it’s more people serving in government to control the agency’s, commissions, departments within the bureaucracy of government. And, if the people’s representatives don’t do their proper job, the Constituent has more local control to vote them out. Citizens want and deserve good government with Accountability and Accessibility for the electorate.
As Joe Mathews, author of California Crack Up wrote:”Having a State Senate and Assembly just doubles the number of dark alleys where shenanigans can take place.”
The question is: Are Californians ready to return the control and power of our government to the people of our state. Restoring Representation is the wave of the future returned from the past to ensure that America and California have representation for every Political Party, Independents, No Party Preference and every class of citizen who lives in cities, communities, farms, or forests. We Want Our Vote To Count, but We Must Fix Yesterday’s Mistakes! For more information and to download petitions, visit Americans Restoring Representation www.ARR4all.com
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