Who’s in charge here?

Any government in which the leaders decide whom they represent, not the other way around, is by definition non-democratic. Yet that’s the way California’s Legislature works. Every 10 years, legislators take the latest U.S. Census data for California and redesign the shapes of their own districts and the congressional districts, making them safe for one party or the other.

Even the Republicans, consigned to minority status indefinitely, support the system. Once elected, they’re safe until term limits push them out. That explains why, of the 306 legislative and congressional races in the past two general elections, only one seat—that of scandal-tainted Rep. Richard Pombo—has changed party hands.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to inject competition into elections by putting redistricting in the hands of a neutral outside panel. But he needs the public’s support, and so far the public has been asleep at the wheel on this issue, voting down a redistricting reform initiative last year.

This time he’s asking the Legislature to do the job, which of course is like asking it to slay its golden goose. To sweeten the offer, he’s suggested that extending term limits—say, from six years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate to 12 years in either house—might be included.

Both reforms would be valuable. The change in term limits would end the job-jumping now going on, with legislators termed out of one house running for office in the other, and it would give both houses the benefit of legislators with greater experience while maintaining the ability of term limits to keep the pool of legislators fresh.

But the reform will go nowhere unless legislators know voters insist on it. If you want a Legislature that is responsive to you, not the politicians, let your lawmakers know you don’t want them drawing their own districts.