Professor Chavez Comments on Prop. 11 for KABC-TV
Professor Anthony Chavez was interviewed October 15 by Sacramento Bureau Chief Nannette Miranda of KABC-TV in Los Angeles regarding Proposition 11 for a news segment the station planned to air on October 20. Professor Chavez was critical of the proposition, which would change the way California draws legislative and Board of Equalization districts, stating that the proposed move to take redistricting away from the Legislature and shift it to an appointed commission would not reduce partisanship in Sacramento or facilitate passage of a state budget as its supporters claim. Prop. 11 would likely have a negligible impact on the composition of districts, given the state's distribution of Democratic and Republican voters, while relocating redistricting authority in a commission that would not be representative of state's increasing diversity, Professor Chavez said.
Anthony Chavez is the Director of the Legal Research and Writing Program at the UC Davis School of Law. He also teaches a class on the Voting Rights Act based on his litigation experience at the U.S. Department of Justice and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.