It doesn’t result in more ‘cooks’. Each legislative district – 40 Senate districts and 80 Assembly districts – are carved up into about 100 ‘Neighborhood Districts’ which elect a ‘Neighborhood Representative’. These 100 then elect one of their number to go to Sacramento as part of a ‘Working Committee’ that takes the place of the current legislature.

Thus, there are still 40 Neighborhood Senators and 80 Neighborhood Assemblymembers in Sacramento.

The big difference is that they get there by: first, winning a tiny district election and second, winning a majority of the votes of 99 other Neighborhood Representatives in their large district.

The Neighborhood Reps make $1000 a year. They don’t meet but they do get an up and down vote on all legislation – something that they can do over the Internet. They don’t have to meet anywhere.

The Working Committee members make $30,000 a year – part time pay. They don’t have to be full time because they don’t have to raise any money and won’t have to do a lot of campaigning. Today’s legislature is full time because they spend so much of their time raising money – they are essentially professional fundraisers right now.

The initiative also saves almost $200 million because staffs are cut by 75%. Someone who represents only 5-10,000 people doesn’t need a big staff.

All in all, this proposal takes back the legislature from the funders and the professional fundraisers who get told what to do by the funders.

Therefore, no money is needed to run a campaign for the legislature.

No money necessary means no control by unions, trial lawyers, big business, environmental groups, etc – the people and organizations that now control Sacramento and dictate what happens, i.e., bankrupting the state.

I watched the video and the proposal still doesn’t sound like it’d actually help anything. More reps from more districts would make people beholden to smaller, and more partisan groups. It’d make it harder to do anything.

Smaller districts can be helpful, but this sounds like it is just too many cooks in the kitchen.

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”!

Because a majority of the leg. don’t have the skills to manage a meat market, they would be unable to write a bill for a leg of lamb.

Well, you know what they say about laughter being the best medicine.

It’s true that the lobbyist brigade writes everthing now — literally. You can blame term limits for part of that. That’s what you get when committee chairmanships and legislative leadership posts are filled by freshman and sophomore legislators.

I don’t know about the “functionally illiterate” part. But definitely forgetful. One forgets she stuffed her bag full of expensive clothing before leaving the store. Another forgets he had his loaded gun and extra clip of bullets in his carry-on at the airport.

Surely, John W, you won’t argue that our current leg. is anything but an embarrassment and a laughing stock.

Who do you think writes the hundreds of pieces of insanity coming out of the leg. now?

A good case can be made that the majority of the leg. is functionally illiterate.

Presumably for the purpose of rubber-stamping the legislation written for them by lobbyists and staff during the periods between legislative sessions.

One would be hard pressed to find a collection of 120 more venal corrupt idiots.

Barring that, a part time legislature which meets for a month every two years would be a vast improvement. Unpaid of course, with moderate compensation for meals, lodging and travel.