Prop. 77 Returns

So in the off again on again world of Proposition 77, it looks like the Schwarzenegger redistricting initiative, which is at the very heart of his reform agenda, is back on the special election ballot. The California Supreme Court ruled yesterday to place the initiative on the fall ballot, overturning the rulings of two lower courts. "Close to 1 million Californians signed petitions demanding redistricting reform - and today their voices have been heard," Schwarzenegger said in a prepared statement on Friday. The initiative circulated for petition and the one submitted to the Secretary of State differ in more than a dozen places--often just a single word transposed or replaced. Still, some paragraphs differ entirely. From reading most of the differences it does appear that they are trivial: no sane person reading the initiative wouldn't have signed it because the version differed. But there is a fair point of law arguing for its removal: Is it really the jurisdiction of the courts to decide what people would and would not have signed? And another crucial question is whether or not the Ted Costa-led signature drive, which has a history of not so clean ballot initiatives, deliberately did not tell the Sec. of State when they discovered the initiatives differed? They are all moot points now. Redistricting, which would take the power of drawing legislative lines out of the hands of the legislature, is back for the special election. And so as Democratic leaders and the Governor look to cut a mega-deal or a truce in the next week, it looks to have to be a prominent part of that compromise.