The Sacramento Bee has the fascinating tale about how entertainment mogul Haim Saban’s withdrawal of support for California legislation that would take post-census reapportionment out of the hands of the legislature, handing it to a citizens’ council, might have nothing to do with who does the job best — and everything to do with Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) keeping his job as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee:
Saban grabbed insiders’ attention last week with the disclosure that he had loaned $2 million to a committee promoting a second reapportionment initiative.
Also headed to the November ballot, the Saban-funded measure is backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic allies, notably Rep. Howard Berman, D-Los Angeles.
The Saban-funded initiative would overturn Proposition 11, the reapportionment initiative approved two years ago, and it would ensure that California politicians would draw boundaries for California legislative and congressional districts.
It’s a curious donation. In 2008, Saban was on the side of Schwarzenegger and Munger, giving $200,000 to Proposition 11, which he now seeks to overturn. In 2005, he sided against Schwarzenegger, giving $100,000 to kill an initiative to strip legislators of their redistricting authority.
You might think that Saban has a deep, though confused, interest in reapportionment. He doesn’t. Saban makes no secret of his passion, and it’s not reapportionment.
"I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel," Saban told the New York Times in 2004.
The Bee’s Dan Morain notes — as others have — that reapportionment would likely add Democrats in increasingly liberal California; but it might make Berman more vulnerable to a Latino challenge in the primary.
Hat Tip: Senate candidate Mickey Kaus
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