Merging 80 Assembly and 40 Senate seats into one chamber with 120 members would not create “more of those *****.”

The Assembly and Senate districts are too big, both geographically and in terms of the number of people represented. I’m a Democrat. But my guess is that Republicans might gain share in a merged legislature made up of smaller districts. Maybe. Who knows?

Nebraska has a unicameral and nominally nonpartisan legislature. Is California (or other states) better governed than Nebraska by having two legislative chambers?

Messy redundancy and purposeful “checks and balances” are not the same thing. The U.S. Senate reflects the concept of federalism, with each state getting two Senators, regardless of population. The House, on the other hand, reflects the interests of districts, independent from the states. For example, Texas may be a red state, but it has some very blue Congressional districts. The political and legislative dynamics resulting from those differences is what gives us the checks and balances in Congress.

At the intrastate level, the dynamics of federalism and the need for a legislative structure to support that federalism do not apply. If it did, we would give more power to the counties and give each county two Senators, regardless of population. Of course, that would not fly under the U.S. Constitution.

Just having two bodies, each representing districts represented on a one man, one vote basis gives us redundancy, not checks.

That would, indeed, be a tad unwieldy. However, there is a case to be made for more legislators. Currently, each state senator represents nearly 50% more constituents than each U.S. House member. Each assembly member represents roughly a half million people. If we merged the senate and assembly into a single chamber of 120, that would bring the ratio down to a bit more than 300 thousand. There is no need for a state senate. It does not serve a purpose comparable to the U.S. Senate — giving the smallest states the same representation as the largest and generally slowing down flavor-of-the-day legislation. All the state senate does is duplicate the assembly and screw things up.

A State Assembly of 8,000 people, and a State Senate of 4,000 people.

I want what he’s (the proponent) smokin’ — it’s gooooooooooooood $#i+!

The logistics alone — where would you hold votes, the Arco Arena? All in favor, do the wave “right”! All opposed, do the wave “left”!

Josh, I hope he didn’t move to our fair state just for the purpose of advocating his proposal. Has about as much chance of getting voter approval and passing court review as High Speed Rail meeting financial projections.

Sure!