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This is the Chamber of the California State Senate, newly redecorated for the opening of the current session for several of its members who have served there for 10, 20 and 30 years. It may be the last session because the federal courts have ruled that the Senate

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must be reconstituted on the basis of population, not area. The situation inspired this comment from Senator Tom Reese of Los Angeles. Thank our new Senate chambers are very significant. We have red carpet WOn't SHOW the bloodstain. This is assignment for the weekly award winning report to

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the West produced in the community Interest by the news and Documentary department of K. R. O. N. T. V. Tonight California remade meaning and impact of legislative reapportionment on the lawmakers and citizens of California throughout the nation. This year, as state legislators convened for another session

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of law making, the work began under a shadow. Until the problem of reapportionment could be solved, little other work could be accomplished. Governor Edmund Pat Brown referred to it in his message to the Legislature on opening day. Two of the task before us stand above the

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rest in difficulty and urgency. One is reapportionment the other is revenue. I regret that the United States Supreme Court has left the people of California no voice in the apportionment formula of their Senate. The courts ruled for compliance is simple and rigid. One citizen, one vote.

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The Senate has wisely chosen to prepare for compliance, while while it explores the possibility of tempering the impact of the court's ruling, many of us could support an amendment which would permit Californians to choose the kind of a Senate that they want. But there is unfair

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is insufficient reason toe hope that Congress would approve such a proposal, and certainly not within the time allotted by the federal courts. There is there, in a sense of history about this meeting of a distinguished state Senate. Its members, some of whom may be here for

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the last time, have performed exceptional service for the people of the state of California, the journal of their achievements. He is unsurpassed in any legislature in this nation. My interest is governor in your work on reapportionment will be twofold. As the elected representative of all Californians,

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I will want to be sure that whatever plan is adopted is fair toe wall and I will also be available to help in any way that I can, as I have in the past, when the Legislature and I have undertaken equally difficult but happier task together.

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The decision on reapportionment lies before us. Northern California senators, Even those whose district do not stand to be eliminated are blunt about what compliance with the court ruling will mean. Senator George Miller of Contra Costa County is going to mean that virtue. Oh, disenfranchisement of Northern

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California. See, at the present time, Southern California has an overwhelming majority in the Assembly because he assembly is based solely or exclusively on population. Both United States senators at the present time come from Southern California. It's certainly no secret that the state constitutional officers pretty generally

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have their eye on Southern California. A large population centers Ah, the vast majority of the membership in the House of Effort. The delegation, the House of Representatives from Southern California, the governor is the appointing power of the judiciary is, uh, surely con's very much concerned with

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Southern California. They can elect a defeat of any constitutional officer, including the governor, and about the only thing you have left for the people, especially those who live north of the Sacramento River. Is the Senate the only representation they have? They have very little representation in

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Congress. The district's are believe 16 or arm or counties in one congressional district, and this minority has historically looked to the Senate and has been generally represented by the Senate. We recognize that these people have always been out voted and always will be out voted. It

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seems to me that one of the things I need, a spokesman and champion of champions of their interests and generally the their interest when they've been made known, have been accepted by, uh, the other house by the Assembly. And they've been very considerate of the needs

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of the people in Northern California. But when there's less representation, the Senate to present those needs, I suspect that many of them will have a tendency, at least to be overlooked. And there's virtually bill we virtually no representation. San Francisco Assemblyman Willie Brown, who fears that

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his maybe one of the seats eliminated if the assembly is redistricted nevertheless, believes in one man one vote. I think this will mean in terms of laws that you will find more weight being given to the needs of people in urban areas. And I think this

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will include San Francisco. In spite of the fact that the large number of new senators and new representatives will come from the southern end of our state, I still think that there will be great respect given to the needs of the people who live in urban

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areas. I am shocked that there isn't much attention being given to a geographical representation comparable to that in the United States Senate in the state of California. But I believe in one man, one vote, and I'll abide by one man, one vote. Virgil O. Sullivan, who's

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three County district, may be expanded to nine or 10 counties, forcing him to run against one of his Senate colleagues, is pessimistic about the effects of reapportionment. First of all, we're going to lose by the reapportionment. I mean, that area, which lies to say, north of

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dacha piece from there north as Northern California, we're going to lose. Uh, we're not going to be able to develop in the way that we have been trying to develop so that we have a sound economy that we have, um, decent cities and way have people

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spread out and available to recreation and the other things and we preserve. Our resource is we're going to be forced on many occasions to sacrifice the sound and intelligent attitudes and public spirited attitudes that we in the North have had in this state for generations. We

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don't we don't We have had very little help from the Southern California legislators When it comes to real tough problems, I don't expect we're going to have very much help from them in the future anymore than we've had in the past. I am not want to

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be. I can't say that I I I think it was like a This is the end of Northern California It isn't but they don't think like we dio and they never have. And I've considered the values that we extol in the North and we've always supported

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is being considerably greater and more in the public interest than those that have been supported mainly by the press and by many of the legislators in the South. We don't have the domination of bosses in the north. Are legislators air pretty independent? Most of them are

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financially independent, and they come to the Legislature with the idea of of acting in the public interest. I can't say that big city machine operations, which are many of them concentrated in the South, developed that type of legislator. And so I'm I just think we're going

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to suffer. I think the whole states going to suffer. O. Sullivan charges the South with having made a mess of its own area. Two great examples in the In America. I think of the destruction of resource is which are necessary for the welfare of all the

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people. One of them is the Owens River Valley. If the Owens River Valley had been properly cared for by the people of the Los Angeles Basin, it could contributed a great deal today to the welfare of those people who live in that heavily congested area. The

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beach frontage in Los Angeles, which is sorely needed by the people of Los Angeles, have now has to be retake, and there's something else to be done to provide it for the people. The entire area. The Los Angeles basin, is an example of just unrestrained lack

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of regard for people. Well, I would feel that that was sort of ah revealing statement if it had been made on the part of the of the Northern Senators, the fact that there are no parks down South, which is not true. Incidentally, Assembly Speaker Jess Unruh,

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whose home is an Inglewood, refuses to accept the blame on behalf of Southern California. But if they accuse us of that, then it's largely their fault, because I'm sure that no Southern California representative in the past has been voting against appropriations for parks in his own

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area. Been in many cases, that due to the fact that we couldn't get the legislation through a northern dominated Senate, Senator Stephen Teal offers an illustration of what reapportionment will mean to rural Northern California voters of Northern California, the residents in Northern California. It means that

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there in general of rural districts will be many, many times larger than they are present. Where the max from size district now encompasses an area of three counties, it is conceivable with one district. The largest which will come out of this reapportionment, uh, readjustment will encompass

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one third of the land area of the state of California, Mr O. Sullivan says the senator who takes over one of the new Northern California district will assume a heavy burden. It is much more difficult to represent a a district composed of, say, 290 or 300

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or 400 people scattered over 10 counties. Then it is if they're concentrated inside of a city where their problems, they're very similar and where the physical proximity is. It's such that you could get around to see them. We who have represented geographic areas, but your large

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you understand it. We know that a man book has to travel 150 or 200 miles from one end of his district to the other is at a disadvantage as faras rendering service is concerned on. This job requires that you render service, and the other problem is

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the diversity of interests in a new area that's spread out like that. Assemblyman Robert Crown of Alameda County was chairman of the committee, which reapportioned the assembly and congressional district in 1961. Well, the assembly was reapportioned, I think, fairly commensurate with the rules set down by

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the state constitution. The state constitution provided that no assembly district could be partly in one county and partly in another. You couldn't have one county and a part of another county eso, but within these restrictions, the assembly was reapportioned fairly. However, there is one situation in

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Southern California, where Imperial County he's very small in population 78,000 right next to Riverside County, which is very large in population. And there was no way of getting around this because you couldn't take part of Riverside County and put it with Imperial. Now the Senate rule

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Waas that no senatorial district could be less than one county, no more than three of small population. On DSO. You had Los Angeles County with over six million, and then you'd have the three small Northern California counties of around 10,000. Eso I think that both houses

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were reapportioned fairly in accordance with our state Constitution. Now, what the U. S Supreme Court has said in effect is that the state Constitution, in reapportioning senatorial State senatorial district, is violative of the federal Constitution. I think this is unfortunate. I agree with Senator George Miller

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that we've done very well in California. We've used the federal plan just as the federal government uses it. We've had one house based on population and one based on area. It worked well. I come from a on urban area in San Francisco Bay Area. I have

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never been hurt on my urban program by any of the rural senators, and I think it za shame that we're going to change the system. Apparently, the United States Supreme Court was trying to reach at certain very pronounced the violations of fairness in some of the

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Southern states in a few of the northern states. And I don't think they knew how to do this without also affecting states such as California, which had been proceeding fairly. Stephen Teal is the man who actually will conduct the reapportionment bill through the state Senate. The

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court on December 3rd said that the state Legislature, so Rhea portion of state Senate by July 1st of 1965. We anticipated this in the Senate many months ago, and as far back as August, we began the foundation work for a committee which I'm chairman, which has

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been in preparation for the problem of reapportionment. Preparation is mainly taken the, uh, taking the form of of preparation of population tables, the actual location of people packages for where these individuals live, trying to determine political and economic boundary lines that will be feasible to use

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and dividing up the state into the new district. I think one of the important things that we have to consider is is not whether they are simply an equal number of people within each district, but also consider the community of interest that exists in any new

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district which we put together. We don't want to have water consumers in the same district of water producers. We don't wanna have people who have basic economic or political differences bundled up together in a district where they won't get along. We want much as possible that

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have developed a community of interest that will make the new district feasible and politically practical. Senator Tom Reece has perhaps the largest constituency of any state legislator in the country. The entire population of the county of Los Angeles, 6,704,000 people under reapportionment. He will share that

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job with some 14 or 15 other senators. Before the Senate, I would have run for the Senate if I thought the job was too big. I feel I could take care of Los Angeles County, and it breaks my heart to see what I consider to be

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a wonderful body being destroyed like this. Everyone would like Thio, get around the table, is the reasonable man and say Fine. But you remember the person's offices where he lived and this is his life. And when you start developing, District's for four incumbent senators now have

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to run against each other. You're going to get very strong feelings because you're talking about the person's life. As far as I'm concerned, my life is politics, and this is the one thing that I I think is wonderful. This is a calling, and I think there's

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a great calling. And so when someone comes up and they said, Well, Reese, be a nice guy, we're gonna eliminate your district. You might be my best friend, but you know, there is gonna be strong feeling. Reese says that if geographical areas no longer are important,

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people with common interests should be kept together. We're starting to think about drawing lines for new district, and much of the thinking is that the line should be completely independent of all congressional and Assembly district lines and should try to bring in more community of interest

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in the district rather than the political interest. Speaker Andrew of the master politician surveys the changes in the power structure, which will be brought by reapportionment. I don't think it's ah going toe have too drastic effect in so faras the the partisan conflict is concerned. But

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inside the political parties, it will, of course, bring a great deal of more power to the South and both parties. That's principally because the in the past, the state Central Committee of both the Republican and the Democratic Party's been made up of the nominees, plus a

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certain number of appointments. Five. If they were incumbents. Three if if they were not, if they were challengers. There have been 32 senators in the past in the North and only eight in the South, so you can see how over balanced state Central committees would be

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as a result of those 32 Northern senators. Now, with some additional 14 or 15 or 16 seats moving to the South, that will, of course, give the southern end of the state a great deal. More to say about the internal management of both the Democratic Party

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and the Republican Party. There is still in offsetting factor, however, and which will give the North a continued voice. And that is that all of the county chairman. The county central committees are on the state Central committee of both parties, and since there are still 50

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counties in the North and eight in the South, that means that the county chairman will drastically reflect the northern part of the state. But it will mean a significant change, and I suppose we'll give the South a great deal more voice inside the political affairs of

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both parties. Like the United States Senate, often called the most exclusive club in the world, the California State Senate has been a club like aspect. Many of the members have been their most of their adult lives. They have hunted, fished and played poker together and helped

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each other get legislation passed to meet the needs of their respective district's. They also have passed such important social legislation as fair employment practices, aid to needy Children and protection for consumers. What is worrying some people who are aware of the strong conservative trends among many

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voters in Los Angeles and Orange counties, is that if the big Northern California delegation is reduced to a more conservative nucleus, it may in combination with the new right wing senators from Southern California blocked the passage of progressive legislation. Perhaps that is why it has been

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said that reapportionment is an act of politics, not an act of political science. Traditionally, the state Senate has not interfered with the reapportionment of the Assembly. But with 14 or more new Senate District being created in Los Angeles County, many Assemblyman from that area may be

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running for the Senate and have more than a casual interest in those jobs. The way those district lines were drawn is thus important to every senator and to every potential senator, and contains the seeds of some possibly bitter infighting. But until the lines begin taking shape,

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no one is sounding belligerent. When Senator Burns suggested a Northern oriented lineup for the Committee on Reapportionment, Speaker Andrew gave a hint of what might come. Oh, on this committee. Representation from north and south will be predominantly north, probably because of the South hasn't the problems

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that we have up here in the north rearrangement ray arranging district lines. I think that, uh, senator from Los Angeles County Princess should be on it because there's a lot of work to do in dividing up Los Angeles County. Uhh. You have a lot of help

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with that. Oh, I'm sure will know. But this is a democratic institution, and I sure every member of the Assembly as the welcome sign out come presented views anytime he wants. Thio, an Italian philosopher, has said politics, like economics, has its own laws independent of morals.

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Senate redistricting is giving the appearance of proceeding amicably, but the anxiety, bitterness and frustration of many of those concerned are only just beneath the surface. It does involve the future of a great many people who must vote upon this legislation upon the final product. That's always

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an explosive overy potentially explosive situation, And it could be that the entire thing could blow up before the sessions over with. I can see a lot of bitterness in California because of this decision, and I only hope that when we do come up with our new

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Senate in the new senator sworn in two years from now that the bitterness will not be so great, is to hurt the progress of the state in assessing the political wreckage or political change brought by reapportionment. Northern lawmakers first expressed dismay, then begin looking for possible

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alternative solutions. Well, I'm an admirer of the Supreme Court. I'm admiring the chief justice. I think they've done some very marvelous things in the area of civil rights. When the federal government was formed, however, our founders said that our federal government was going to be one

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of delegated powers, that the states and the people were the repositories of power and all power to the federal government was delegated to it. Now I'm sure that any student of constitutional history would agree that the founders never intended that the federal government should dictate to

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the states how they should create their own state legislatures. And this was never the intention. Senator Hugh Burns of Fresno says the Senate will comply with the reapportionment decision. I know of no member in the Senate that is abandon there, interest in trying to comply with

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the court order and the best of their ability. Everyone that I have talked to, who maintains that it's a much better procedure if we put our own house in order and do our own line drawing rather than thio be forced to accept a solution provided by

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the court of Master or some sort of individual or group of individuals who do this forest. And I haven't heard any discussion along those lines Up to this point. We're making every effort and going to make every effort to comply with a court order that on

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July the first, we'll have a plan. But what are the alternatives? First, it has been pointed out that as of now, there is no alternative to compliance. But people do about this. There's nothing that people could do about it. The legislatures under court order to do

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it. And no matter what the people think, it has to be done. But over a longer period of time, there are a number of alternatives which may be tried, and lawmakers from Northern California are looking into all of them. Senator Richard Doll Wig of San Mateo

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County has introduced legislation to make California into two states. Next week, Assignment four will examine this and other avenues aimed at avoiding or softening the coming political domination of California by four southern counties Assignment four is produced in the community interest each week at this time

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by the news and documentary departments of K R. O. N. T. V. Be With Us again next week for another report to the West on assignment for.