May 19, 2000
Friends and Supporters,
Special thanks to each and every one of you who have
been so helpful and supportive of the Fair Vote 2K effort over the past five
months. Unfortunately, our effort has produced fewer than 10,000 signatures, far
short of the 670,000 required to qualify for the November 2000 ballot.
Therefore, we will not be filing petitions with county registrars prior to our
May 25th deadline.
The consequence is that there will be no districting reform prior to the 2002
elections. District boundaries will probably be drawn by a Democrat majority
next April, when the Census reports California population. The new electoral
districts will likely be passed and signed by the Governor very late in the next
session, shortly before the filing deadline for the 2002 primary election. It
will be practically and legally impossible
to preclude this uni-partisan districting plan with any sort of Referendum or
legal challenge.
Therefore, we will be transitioning the Fair Vote 2K Coalition into an advocacy
PAC, with two objectives.
First, we'll obtain the Census counts as quickly as possible and issue district maps based on the FV2K methodology, population equality and maximum geographic compactness, as quickly as possible. We'll hope to gain maximum media attention and possibly influence legislative drafting.
Second, we'll be drafting a new FV2K
Initiative aimed at the November 2002 ballot. Of course, signatures collected during this circulation period cannot be applied to the new effort, which must start from scratch... probably in December of 2001.
FV2K (...too
or squared) will be nearly identical to our original proposal, though we'll
probably substitute a brief compliance clause for the lengthy Election Code
revisions. This will make it easier to fit the petition form on an 8x11 page and
avoid any technical complications in the implementation. We also need to do some
legal research on mid-decade changes in election districts.
The top priority for the new effort is fundraising. It's rather evident that
paid circulation is the only means of qualifying an initiative proposal. We'll
need your help to maintain the website and continue our efforts over the next
two years. Please contribute what you can, but more important, open any doors
that could gain the Coalition the assistance of large financial donors.
Our second priority will be working with other groups to gain their support and
assistance. Common Cause has already endorsed a "compact" criteria for
districting, but never joined our effort. The League of Women Voters is
conducting a large study of electoral systems and putting districting on their
agenda will be important. Of course, we'll renew and extend the official party
endorsements we've already obtained. And, we won't write-off any Democrat groups
that put fairness above loyalty.
Over the next few weeks we'll be compiling names and addresses of the
circulators we've received on the petitions we have in-hand (please DO mail any
petitions to the HQ promptly).
We'll be preparing a mailing within the next few weeks to all the participants,
thanking them for their efforts and soliciting their continued support.
Again, thank you for your support and assistance.
We've only lost the first battle. Full steam ahead!
Bill
Westmiller
Author, FV2K
(A total of 670,816 signatures were required to be filed with the various County Registrars by May 25, 2000. The Initiative would have been considered qualified if more than 737,899 signatures had been submitted.)
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