{"id":6069,"date":"2017-09-06T09:57:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T16:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=6069"},"modified":"2017-09-07T09:08:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T16:08:44","slug":"schwarzeneggers-bipartisan-next-political-act-terminating-gerrymandering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/09\/06\/schwarzeneggers-bipartisan-next-political-act-terminating-gerrymandering\/","title":{"rendered":"Schwarzenegger\u2019s bipartisan next political act: Terminating gerrymandering (sfchronicle.com)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"header\">\n<div class=\"header-branding section\">\n<div class=\"menu-btn\">\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">By\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/joe-garofoli\/\">Joe Garofoli<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"article-wrap\">\n<div class=\"zone zone-1\">\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"article-head\"><span class=\"datestamp\"><span class=\"published\">September 4, 2017<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-text\">\n<div class=\"asset_gallery\" data-config-asset-position=\"1\">\n<div class=\"hst-resgallery-container three-wide\">\n<div class=\"hst-resgallery-wedge\">\n<ul class=\"hst-resgallery\">\n<li class=\"hst-resgalleryitem\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap landscape\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"landscape\" src=\"http:\/\/ww4.hdnux.com\/photos\/65\/42\/67\/14036431\/3\/920x920.jpg\" alt=\"ROME, ITALY - JANUARY 25: Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen at Piazza Di Spagna on January 25, 2017 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Ernesto Ruscio\/GC Images) Photo: Ernesto Ruscio, GC Images\" \/><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"control-panel\">\n<p><span class=\"credit\" style=\"font-size: 12px;\">Photo: Ernesto Ruscio, GC Images. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">ROME, ITALY &#8211; JANUARY 25: Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen at Piazza Di Spagna on January 25, 2017 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Ernesto Ruscio\/GC Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"ctpl-mediumrectangle4\" class=\"ctpl-mediumrectangle clearfix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"AP300\" class=\"ctpl-duplicated-ad\" data-google-query-id=\"COmUtYWDkdYCFUuPYgodIM8AZg\"><\/div>\n<p>Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a master at marketing, having scaled to the top of three different professions.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sync-inline-overlay\">\n<p>But these days, the former bodybuilder and movie star is taking on perhaps his biggest sales challenge since he made \u201cLast Action Hero\u201d: He\u2019s trying to get people to care about redistricting, the critical but arcane process of drawing political districts.<\/p>\n<p>How those boundaries are drawn, block by block, once every decade, can determine which party controls the state legislatures and Congress. In many states, the process is overseen by a few politicians or whichever party dominates the legislature. That often leads to gerrymandering \u2014 districts created to favor a single party<\/p>\n<p>This distortion perpetuates a system in which\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/overview\/reelect.php\">98 percent of House members<\/a>\u00a0are regularly re-elected in politically safe districts and is a big reason gridlock continues in Washington: The same players return year after year with no real fear of competition at home.<\/p>\n<p>That lack of competition, Schwarzenegger said, has made voters think the system is rigged. And that frustration, he said, led many to vote for President Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople elected an outsider because of frustration,\u201d Schwarzenegger said. \u201cThat\u2019s one way of reaction. The other way is to fix the system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 70-year-old is at the forefront of a push to change that system.<\/p>\n<p>Challenges to existing redistricting systems are moving through courts in several states, with a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/case-files\/cases\/gill-v-whitford\/\">pivotal case scheduled to be heard\u00a0<\/a>by the Supreme Court next month. Former President Barack Obama said overhauling redistricting will be one of his post-presidency priorities. This month, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, fronted by former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder and others, will ramp up its operations, focusing on changing redistricting procedures in several states, either through the ballot box or court challenges.<\/p>\n<p>But Schwarzenegger could be the movement\u2019s most influential voice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody is probably going to change their opinion about redistricting because President Obama and Eric Holder talk about it,\u201d said Eric Rauchway, a professor of history at UC Davis. \u201cThey might if Schwarzenegger does. He has his own platform. He\u2019s a celebrity. And he\u2019s a moderate Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Plus, Schwarzenegger has redistricting street cred. In 2008, he led the passage of Proposition 11 that set up a nonpartisan citizens commission to draw the boundaries for California\u2019s legislative seats. Two years later, voters approved a measure that enabled the commission to draw the lines for California\u2019s congressional districts as well.<\/p>\n<p>The key to talking about redistricting and gerrymandering, Schwarzenegger said, is to keep it simple.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mistake that a lot of people make is to talk about the details,\u201d Schwarzenegger said during a recent phone interview. \u201cDon\u2019t start with the details, because then people see the pine needles but not the forest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The twist: If the Republican Schwarzenegger and his allies across the political spectrum, including Obama, Holder and Common Cause, are successful in taking the redistricting out of the hands of partisan officials, \u201cthere\u2019s every reason to believe that Democrats would benefit from a more neutral\u201d way of drawing the lines, Rauchway said.<\/p>\n<p>But Schwarzenegger, who has tried to cultivate a \u201cpost-partisan\u201d image since leaving office in 2011, disagreed that improving redistricting is designed to create a partisan outcome.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an issue where there should be no advantage or disadvantage to any party,\u201d Schwarzenegger said. \u201cIt is meant to be an advantage for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s why he\u2019s directing his pitch at the mass market.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been crafting his antigerrymandering campaign just as he would one of his action movies. He\u2019s created a villain (Congress, entrenched politicians in general). He\u2019s come up with a couple of memorable one-liners about his enemy \u2014 \u201c(Congress)<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qfc3N0ZngXs\">\u00a0couldn\u2019t even beat herpes\u00a0<\/a>in the polls.\u201d And he explains the path to a happy ending: \u201cGerrymandering must be destroyed. You must demand gerrymandering reform in all 50 states.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead of dropping in on late-night talk shows to promote his new project, Schwarzenegger is drawing a mass audience to the issue by starring in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qfc3N0ZngXs\">\u00a0a series of short, funny videos<\/a>, heavily salted with quotations from his movies, that have gone viral. Each explains the issue in simple, easy-to-understand terms.<\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qfc3N0ZngXs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<p>\u201cGerrymandering has created an absurd reality,\u201d Schwarzenegger says looking straight into the camera in one video, \u201cwhere politicians now pick their voters instead of the voters picking their politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Through San Francisco\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crowdpac.com\/campaigns\/207023\/this-is-our-chance-to-make-gerrymandering-unconstitutional\">\u00a0CrowdPac,<\/a>\u00a0an online fundraising platform, he\u2019s raising money online (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crowdpac.com\/campaigns\/207023\/this-is-our-chance-to-make-gerrymandering-unconstitutional\">$98,217 as of Friday<\/a>) to help fund a legal challenge to Wisconsin gerrymandering that will be\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2017\/08\/justices-tackle-partisan-gerrymandering-plain-english\/\">heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3.<\/a>\u00a0Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the case \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2017\/08\/justices-tackle-partisan-gerrymandering-plain-english\/\">perhaps the most important<\/a>\u201d that the court will hear all year. Schwarzenegger will match what is raised online and likely kick in more support, as legal bills could approach $1 million.<\/p>\n<p>He has spent much of the last week on the phone trying to arm-twist Republican members of Congress into signing onto an amicus brief in the Wisconsin case. It\u2019s been a tough recruiting effort. While politicians tell him privately that they support him, they\u2019re hesitant to publicly sign something that party leaders think could be their political death warrant.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have mastered the redistricting process thanks to a concerted effort in 2010 to win state-level races that enabled them to draw the political maps to their advantage. The result is a strong majority in the House of Representatives that Democrats are unlikely to break unless they can redraw the maps into more competitive districts after the next census in 2020, analysts said.<\/p>\n<p>The GOP\u2019s mastery of redistricting has helped them to dominate several levels of government. Since 2008, Democrats have lost more than 1,000 legislative seats across the country. Democrats hold 39 fewer seats in the House, three fewer in the Senate, and can claim 13 fewer Democratic governors than they did in 2007. The GOP controls 34 governor\u2019s seats and dominates all branches of government in 26 states. Democrats control all three branches in only 15 states.<\/p>\n<p>Schwarzenegger thinks that there will be more competitive races if the lines are drawn by non-politicians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompetition creates better performances,\u201d Schwarzenegger said. \u201cIf someone is worried about competition, they will go out and perform better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s senior political writer. Email:\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com\">jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com<\/a>Twitter:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/joegarofoli\">@joegarofoli<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"author-wrap\">\n<div class=\"authorinfo noborder last\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ww3.hdnux.com\/photos\/36\/07\/16\/7893898\/5\/premium_author_module.jpg\" alt=\"Joe Garofoli\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"name\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/joe-garofoli\/\">Joe Garofoli<\/a><\/h2>\n<p class=\"title\">Senior Political Writer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zone zone-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"hdnce-e hdnce-item-14555\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0By\u00a0Joe Garofoli September 4, 2017\u00a0 Photo: Ernesto Ruscio, GC Images. \u00a0ROME, ITALY &#8211; JANUARY 25: Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen at Piazza Di Spagna on January 25, 2017 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Ernesto Ruscio\/GC Images) Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a master at marketing, having scaled to the&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/09\/06\/schwarzeneggers-bipartisan-next-political-act-terminating-gerrymandering\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6069"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6076,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6069\/revisions\/6076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}