The initiative comes after two years of extensive research and discussion among California's leading civic organizations to devise a redistricting reform policy that provided true independence from the legislature and that could win at the ballot despite historic opposition from legislators that are reticent to give up the power to handcraft their own boutique districts.

Todays coalition represents an impressive gathering from across the political spectrum, and perhaps that's what's worrying political insiders like Steve Maviglio, a spokesperson for California Assembly leader Fabian Nunez.  Maviglio became the first Californian to state his opposition to Common Cause's proposal today in a blog posting and in comments to reporters.  Maviglio seems to think that drawing political boundaries is too complicated and complex a task for a commission of citizens without help from experts in the legislature.  It's a little like arguing that we should put criminals on jury's because they know lots more about crime than ordinary law abiding folks do.

Maviglio claims to support turning redistricting over to an independent commission, just not this idea.  Legislative leaders have been promising to put their own reform proposal on the ballot ever since they opposed the last reform initiative that was on the ballot in 2007.  Their failure to do so is what has spearheaded the Voter's FIRST initiative.

Now that legislator's see a true grassroots effort underway to take the self-interest out of redistricting, they may put forth their own proposal that would either A) not truly be independent, B) look good as policy but be designed to lose on the ballot, or C) actually be a compromise worth considering. Stay tuned, the next few months will be interesting.