You remember the fairy tale … the little girl visits her grandmother but notices something strange about her … "What big teeth you have, grandmother."
A Big Bad Wolf has dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother so as to catch her by surprise and devour her.
The backers of Proposition 27 play the Big Bad Wolf in a modern day version of the tale. The politicians behind Prop 27 want to devour the poor voters who think it’s a good idea to remove legislators from the obvious self-interest of drawing their own legislative districts.
The voters decided through Proposition 11 in 2008 to create a commission to oversee fair redistricting. The commission is just now being selected but the politicians don’t want to see it operate.
Unlike the Big Bad Wolf of the fairy tale who had big ears "the better to hear you with," today’s politicians don’t want to hear from the voters.
So they dressed up arguments for Prop 27 in anti-politician rhetoric to fool the voters just as the wolf donned grandma’s sleeping gown to deceive Riding Hood.
Democratic politicians are pouring money into passing Proposition 27. Not only is their hope to trump Prop 11 from 2008, but also to knock off Proposition 20 on this ballot. Proposition 20 would extend the power of the commission to redraw congressional districts, excluded from Prop 11.
I suppose that’s why Congresswoman Judy Chu tossed in $600,000 to pass Proposition 27. She has faith that her fellow Democratic politicians will protect her instead of risking the deliberations of the commission.
Chu’s contribution leads a list of Democratic congressional and state elected officers who are trying to wrest the power from the voters and overturn a vote of the people.
A varied and wide non-partisan coalition came together to pass the redistricting commission initiative and bring fairness to the unglamorous, but important job of drawing legislative districts. As Prop 27 proponent Daniel Lowenstein explained in an interview, it is a partisan effort that is now championing Proposition 27.
And, I might add, undermining the people’s will.
(Disclosure: I signed one of the ballot arguments opposed to Proposition 27.)