Ideas for political reform get closer look amid state woes.

MOMENTUM appears to be growing in Sacramento for some kind of reform of the state's electoral system. Slowly.

While there is no broad agreement, proposals are being batted around in three key areas: taking the politics out of reapportionment, returning to open primaries, and tinkering with term limits.

The general goal is lowering the partisan decibel level in Sacramento, while encouraging more legislative stability.

"The Legislature isn't thinking broadly and in the long term. We have more extremists and it's almost impossible to get agreements," said Marion Taylor, legislative director of the League of Women Voters of California.

One proposal from a bipartisan group of legislators would place a constitutional amendment before voters that radically alters the state's reapportionment system. Another is a bipartisan initiative backed by state Controller Steve Westly and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan that would return the state to an open primary system.

Finally, Democratic leaders were considering a last-minute bill last week that would alter term limits, although any such measure would have to be put before voters.

Reform gathers steam

The reapportionment plan is contained in a bill being carried by Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and co-signed by eight moderate Assembly members, including Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills.

The Lowenthal plan would create an independent five-member redistricting commission drawn from a pool of 25 candidates nominated by a panel of retired judges. The plan is modeled after Arizona's system, considered the most radical model in terms of taking power away from legislators.

Currently, reapportionment is wholly under the control of the state Legislature. The result, many believe, is a process that rewards incumbents with safe seats, leading to general elections that are not competitive.

Lowenthal introduced the bill a few weeks ago, but not for consideration this year. Rather, he wants the public and others to get a long look at it before the start of the next session in January.

"We will see whether we can build bipartisan support in the Legislature," said Lowenthal, who is seeking to place it on the November 2004 ballot.

The open primary initiative is an even more nascent effort, although supporters plan to formally kick it off in October with a media blitz.

The initiative would create a "Louisiana type" primary system aimed at getting around a 2000 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down the state's last open primary law, which was enacted after voters passed Proposition 198 in 1996.

That proposition created a "blanket primary" in which registered Democrats and Republicans could vote for any candidate in a primary. But the high court, in response to lawsuits by the parties, ruled that the process violated the parties' First Amendment right to free association.

The new initiative, whose language has already been submitted to the Attorney General for consideration, seeks to get around that ruling by essentially creating non-partisan elections for state, Congress and the U.S. Senate, with the top two primary vote getters squaring off in the general election.

Westly said he believes such a system would encourage more moderation among candidates rather than adhering to the party line. Westly said be and Riordan expect to raise up to $2 million to get it on the November 2004 ballot.

Term limits

Meanwhile, efforts to reform the state's term limit system, which was adopted by voters in 1990 and restricts legislators to three Assembly terms and two Senate terms, have gone nowhere.

Last year, voters soundly rejected Proposition 45, an effort to tweak the law by allowing lawmakers to seek four more years in office if they gathered signatures of 20 percent of the voters who participated in prior elections.

That's despite growing criticism that the system has significant faults, including creating an amateurish Legislature unable to tackle the state's complex problems and dependent on staff members and lobbyists.

Voter support of term limits is so strong that Gov. Gray Davis refused to support Proposition 45 and Riordan and other GOP candidates for governor last year came flat out against it.

Now, there is a growing belief that the only way to see change is to keep the 14-year service limit, or an even lower one, but to allow Legislators the choice of which house they want to serve it in.

Last week came word that Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, wanted to get such a bill through the Legislature in the frenetic final days of the session. But it also would include allowing existing office holders to serve an additional 12 years, even if they were about to be termed out.

The move was creating a furor among term limit supporters, and as of late Thursday no bill had emerged from Wesson's office. He did not return telephone calls for comment.

Republican candidate for governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released a statement last week calling on the Legislature to oppose any effort to amend the term limit law.

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