DON'T BELIEVE NUNEZ WANTS REDISTRICTING.

Byline: EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON

ASSEMBLY Speaker Fabian Nunez has feigned interest in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to redistrict. Don't believe it.

Nunez is the absolute last person on the planet who would have any sympathy for Schwarzenegger's plan. It yanks power from the Legislature to redraw legislative districts and puts it in the hands of a citizens commission made up of local voter registrars. That would deal a lethal blow to legislators' ability to create safe, cozy, one-party friendly districts -- a practice that has transformed districts into impregnable fiefdoms for the anointed Democrat or Republican.

Truly competitive legislative races would put a word back into politics that many legislators have developed terminal amnesia about -- accountability. It would force the incumbent Democrat or Republican to make the rounds to churches, colleges and community rallies, and talk issues, tout their programs, and even lay out a vision of politics and government. It would give voters a real reason for making the effort to go to the polls because unlike under the current system, the outcome of legislative races wouldn't be pre-decided.

My district in South Los Angeles is a textbook example of the rigged political deck that legislative races have become. It's a safe Democratic district, and in the three decades I have lived there, the incumbent has not only been re-elected with a gargantuan vote tally, but also, in most of the years, has had no Democratic opponent in the primary, and only a token Republican in the general election.

The district is hardly an aberration. This sorry story is repeated in virtually every legislative district in the state. Safe Legislature-drawn districts have made such a mockery of our elections that in the past three elections, seats have changed party hands in only four out of 459 congressional and legislative races.

Though Nunez promised to take a look at redistricting, not one legislator has even hinted that he or she would introduce a proposal to bolster the governor's plan.

Last term, the state Senate proposed a plan for redistricting that would have slightly reduced the Legislature's power to redraw district lines. But it died a quick and predictable death in the Assembly.

Out of frustration, Schwarzenegger made an ill-fated misstep in 2005 with his initiative that would have turned the responsibility for redistricting over to retired judges. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposal, and rightly so. It was too limited, put power in the hands of too few, and posed the danger of re-electing a judicial partisan tilt.

Yet Schwarzenegger's new plan -- an independent commission with local officials calling the shots -- is a far better deal. It's broader, more representative of voters' interests, and therefore more likely to be insulated from special-interest meddling.

But Schwarzenegger's plan is not perfect. One pitfall is that minorities could be underrepresented on the 11-member citizens commission that would be chosen from a poll of 55 names by the Fair Political Practices Commission. Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, who also chairs the legislative black caucus, has said he would oppose the plan if there were no diversity on the commission.

Another pitfall is that legislators may try to cut a deal with Schwarzenegger to link support for his redistricting plan to a sneak effort to bump up term limits. Legislators have long dreamed of scrapping term limits altogether, and the instant the L.A. City Council got voters to back its end run around term limits -- Measure R -- by tying it to ethics reform, the wheels spun in motion in the Legislature. Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger sent the wrong signal when he indicated that he was receptive to the idea. He shouldn't be.

An independent redistricting plan should not be contingent on scuttling term limits. The voters have made it clear in polls and in their votes that they'll reject any effort to tamper with term limits. Studies have shown that since term limits took effect in 1996, Assembly and Senate races have become slightly more competitive within district primaries; the number of women, Latinos and Asians in the Legislature has increased; and the newcomers are much more likely to attain seniority positions faster.

A redistricting plan that takes legislators out of the business of protecting their own turfs is long past due. It would restore real competition to Senate and Assembly races.