California and the West : Proposed Pay Reduction for Legislature Splits GOP : Politics: The House in Washington wants to help itself by rewriting the redistricting rules. As an incentive to voters, it is offering an enticing carrot.

SACRAMENTO — Politicians love to joke that Republicans eat their young, meaning they spend so much time squabbling with each other that they lose sight of their real enemy: Democrats.

Take the latest example of GOP intramural bickering, which threatens to drive a wedge between lawmakers in California and their counterparts in Washington.

Republicans in the House of Representatives see the $99,000-a-year pay of their statehouse brethren as a rallying cry for voters to approve a ballot initiative that would not only cut legislative salaries but, more important, would also strip Gov. Gray Davis and majority Democrats of the power to redraw districts.

Not surprisingly, the initiative has sparked an outcry in Sacramento--especially among Republicans.

“This is the best example I’ve seen yet of a corrupt initiative with one single purpose: to fool and deceive the voters to think they are beating up on legislators but in fact taking care of Congress’ agenda,” complained Assemblyman Brett Granlund (R-Yucaipa).

“If they want the voters to vote on a reapportionment initiative, then put a reapportionment initiative on the ballot. But don’t dress it up as a whipping stick for elected officials,” Granlund said.

The proposal would trim state lawmakers’ pay to $75,000, reduce their daily tax-free expenses from $121 to $75 and hand redistricting power to judges. It would not affect the pay of House members, now nearly $137,000 a year.

This week, backers of the initiative began turning in signed petitions in hopes of qualifying the measure for the March ballot. They say what’s at stake is nothing less than control of the U.S. House, where the GOP has a slim majority of 222 to the Democrats’ 211.

Congressional Republicans have pumped more than $400,000 into the initiative drive, according to state-required campaign disclosure documents filed this summer.

Rep. William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield), the delegation’s point man on redistricting, helped round up support for the initiative and shelled out $50,000 from his own campaign coffers. Thomas could not be reached for comment about animosity voiced by state lawmakers, but through an aide he issued a statement last week indicating that he expects the proposal to reach the ballot.

“Now it will truly be up to the voters to decide if they want to remove the conflict of interest of letting politicians draw their own political districts,” the statement said. “Now that voters will have the power to fix the problem, I hope they will use it.”

Critics point out that several previous efforts to remove reapportionment--the once-a-decade redrawing of district lines--from the Legislature have not succeeded.

They also see it in far less lofty terms than do the measure’s backers.

State Sen. Ray Haynes (R-Rancho Murrieta) said that by reducing his tax-free per diem to $75, the initiative would cut into his household budget.

“What it means is that in order to do the job I [would] have to take money out of my own pocket. There’s no job anywhere where the boss asks the employee to take money out of their own pocket to keep the job,” Haynes said.

Even so, he added, because he feels strongly about the need for fair redistricting, he will not oppose the proposal should it make the ballot.

Other GOP lawmakers in Sacramento also favor the initiative. “When legislators draw their own districts, they inevitably serve their own self-interest and that’s why it’s necessary for the courts to draw the lines,” said Assembly GOP Leader Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach.

If it were to become law, the ruling Democrats could not redraw district boundaries to their benefit. Republicans believe a panel of judges would draw up a less partisan redistricting plan, boosting the odds of maintaining their narrow grip on the U.S. House.

“California will lose as many as 10 Republican congressional seats if the Democrats are allowed to gerrymander districts,” warned Ted Costa of the People’s Advocate, a group that has collected petition signatures in favor of putting the initiative on the ballot.

Under reapportionment, the boundaries of all 120 state legislative districts and all 52 congressional districts will be redrawn. Remapping districts can either shore up incumbents’ chances or make them more vulnerable to challenge. The redrawing will take place after the 2000 census is tabulated.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz is aiming to place a campaign reform initiative on the March ballot that originally would have addressed redistricting, placing it in the hands of a nonpartisan commission. But Unz dropped that provision from his proposal.

Tinkering with reapportionment can be tricky, resulting in unintended consequences.

In the early 1990s after the last census, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson took the issue to the state Supreme Court after he and the Democratic-controlled Legislature failed to agree on a plan establishing new boundaries.

Republicans expected the plan to give them a chance to control at least one house of the Legislature for the first time since 1970. Early in 1996 the GOP took control of the Assembly and elected Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) as speaker.

But Republicans were unable to keep the majority and Democrats, with 47 members, now hold the same number of seats in the Assembly as they did when the remapping was approved in 1992. Likewise, in the state Senate, Democrats held 24 of the 40 seats and now control 25.

Having supported previous remapping initiatives, Senate Republican Leader Ross Johnson of Irvine expressed reservations about the latest scheme.

“Four times in the past, Republicans have had initiatives on this subject and each time they have been attacked effectively as Republican power grabs,” Johnson said, noting that it could also impact GOP campaigns.

“Money spent on an initiative,” he cautioned, “is money that won’t be available for Republican candidates.”