Berkshire Billionaire’s Son Battles Soros on California Ballot

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Charles Munger Jr., son of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Charles Munger, is battling billionaire George Soros, unions and Democratic Party leaders to strip congressional redistricting powers from California lawmakers.

The younger Munger, 53, and his wife have spent $10 million to win support on Nov. 2 for an initiative that puts the task of reshaping California’s 53 U.S. representative districts into the hands of the Citizens Redistricting Commission. A competing measure backed by Soros and labor groups would erase the panel.

“I’m doing this to try to ensure voters have fair districts where representatives will compete for offices,” Munger said yesterday in a telephone interview from Palo Alto. “Elected politicians are picking the voters, voters aren’t picking their representatives.”

Munger has mailed 660,000 DVDs of “Gerrymandering,” a 77- minute documentary, to regular voters in California in support of Proposition 20, which would give the state panel, created by a 2008 ballot measure, added power over congressional district lines. With his wife, Charlotte Lowell, 53, they account for most of the $10.5 million raised to support the initiative, the California Secretary of State’s website shows.



Read more: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601108&sid=aDsbk7Eg7THU

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Why doesn't the conservative filth un-gerrymander TEXAS instead?

[aquamarina]

1. I got a copy of this DVD a few weeks ago.

I was wondering who sponsored it - and no, I haven't watched it yet.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. I'm using mine to scare birds in the garden.

I was wondering who paid for it but I knew that I didn't need to waste my time watching it.

[ladywnch]

2. Gerrymandering-------nothing like what rethugs have done in TX

and several other states over the last 8 years......when dems do it.....BAD. when rethugs do it.......public mandate!

[Demeter]

3. Seems unconstitutional to me

[AsahinaKimi]

4. I really wish

Out of state Conservatives would leave California alone.

[Gin]

5. California ballots must be long with all those propositions...

[AsahinaKimi]

6. I don't know if you saw the recent one..

I think it was 5 or 6 pages long, printed on both sides.

[Gin]

10. good god... 5or 6 pages ...its a wonder people even vote...and if they even

know what the hell they are voting for.....

[AsahinaKimi]

11. Yeah i had to study

It was like doing homework.. seriously!!

[Iowa]

7. One of many reasons for VERY high estate taxes on the mega-wealthy...

Second, third, and fourth generation trust-fund kids are a plague on the nation. If we would strip them of their assets and redistribute the wealth every generation, we could possibly save our society. Allow a million bucks to pass, tax-free, per descendant (maybe 2 or 3 million for a disabled descendant). Index it to inflation. Take 100% of the rest. Redistribute it via educational or small-business grants for people who demonstrate promise and financial need. This would go a long way to resolving many of the underlying problems this country faces, IMO.

We need to keep the GW Bushes and the Charles Munger Juniors of the world busy trying to prop up their high-living lifestyles so they don't have enough time or money to meddle in state and national affairs, unless they are willing to pursue such endeavors under their own steam, which is highly unlikely.

[LiberalFighter]

8. It would be a fine idea but who decides the members of the commission

that determines the districts?

[bemildred]

9. It's something like 5 dems, 5 repubs, and 4 "independents".

And you gotta have some of all three to draw districts. I can't swear to the numbers, and I'm too lazy to look it up, but that's how it works.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. Those are the numbers as laid out in Prop. 11 which was passed two years ago

but the commission authority applies only to state legislative districts. What the current proposition (Prop. 20) would do is extend this untested process to Congressional districts.

There's a competing proposition (Prop. 27) which undoes the commission established by Prop. 11 and defines districting goal differently by requiring equal populations in districts as well as providing voters with the authority to reject the new boundary maps.


If both 20 and 27 pass, the one with the highest number of votes becomes law.

I'm hoping both fail.

[No Elephants]

15. If it passes, will half the California Republicans change their registration to Indie?

[bemildred]

17. It seems unlikely that there will be no attempts to game the process.

The one policy lawmakers have universally shown genuine affection for is a safe seat for them and their cronies. But the current process is already bizarre in its results, so I don't know that we have much to lose. And when the new dispensation becomes corrupted, we can always change it back, there will be other initiatives to do that just about every two years, I would think, something the parties can still agree on.

[Unvanguard]

12. Some lottery process, I think, with guaranteed partisan balance.

It's a strange way of doing it, but probably better than the present method, which incentivizes incumbent protection for members of all parties.

[No Elephants]

16. "Guaranteed partisan balance?" Sounds like a unicorn

Closest they could come to guaranteed partisan balance would be appointing 14 Democrats.