Accountability in government. The will of the people. Honesty in elections. These core principles, no matter how often they are debated, form the foundation of American politics and represent core values shared by all of us regardless of party.

But every one of these principles is under attack in the form of Proposition 93, an initiative on the Feb. 5 ballot. Proposition 93 is one of the most deceptive and dishonest measures that Californians have been asked to vote on in many years. It's a sham proposal to weaken term limits, masquerading as an effort to "reform" and strengthen them.

Put simply, Proposition 93 is a trick. It is intentionally designed to fool the people into thinking they are voting to reduce terms for state legislators when in fact it contains a special loophole to give 42 termed-out incumbent politicians more time in office. In fact, it will dramatically increase terms for 80 percent of California's legislators. Prop. 93 doubles the number of years a politician can serve in the assembly from six to 12 years and increases Senate terms by 50 percent - from a total of eight to 12 years.

You won't be surprised to learn that Proposition 93 is written by career politicians for the benefit of career politicians, and funded by millions of dollars from special interests with business before the legislature.

The entire strategy behind the "Yes on Proposition 93" campaign is a classic one - smoke and mirrors. The politicians and special interests behind Proposition 93 are counting on voters never learning the facts about the initiative's real impact because they know they could never win an honest vote to weaken term limits.
That's why I've decided to lead the opposition to Proposition 93 and work to ensure that Californians know the truth about this scam initiative.

As California's Insurance Commissioner, I'm an elected official now too. But my life's work has been as an engineer and businessman. I've brought my experiences from starting and running successful companies into my current position - finding commonsense solutions and ways to make government work more effectively for the people. I believe in the power of new ideas and fresh viewpoints - which is exactly what our term limits law promotes.

Term limits serve as a check on the powerful. They force career politicians to relinquish power and create a chance for new people with innovative ideas to be elected to public office. They help open up the process and create opportunities for more women and people of color to run and be elected.

Term limits also provide the only real accountability we currently have on legislative politicians. The legislators have gerrymandered their own districts so badly that it's virtually impossible for an incumbent to lose or a seat to switch parties.

The numbers tell the story. Of the 459 possible elections for State Assembly, State Senate and Congress since the 2001 gerrymander of California's legislative districts, only a single seat changed partisan hands. In those same 459 elections, only a single incumbent lost.

Today, the only way politicians ever leave office in California is when they're termed out, thanks to our existing term limits law.

To add insult to injury, the legislative leaders behind Proposition 93 promised they would pass meaningful redistricting reform and promote reform to term limits and California's redistricting process as a package to gain support for their effort to stay in office longer. But they didn't.

If Proposition 93 passes, it would remove a check on powerful politicians and weaken term limits. It's also likely to permanently kill any hopes for real redistricting reform. If politicians and special interests get what they want by extending their terms and staying in office, there will be no incentive in Sacramento to ever reform redistricting. They'll be even more powerful than they are now and better positioned to defeat any citizen-sponsored initiative to make our legislative districts fair.

These legislative leaders have prioritized extending their terms in office over improving California's water policy, improving health care or reforming redistricting. They've also underestimated the voters of California by thinking the people can be tricked into keeping them in office.

The cynical career politicians behind Proposition 93 do not deserve to be rewarded with more time in office - or with your vote for their misleading measure.

Please join me in supporting our current term limits law by voting No on Prop 93.

Randy Shaw came to the same conclusion in "Progressives Must Reject Prop 93" (http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=5307#more), which ends with this advice: "Prop 93 keeps politically bankrupt leadership in power, at a time when new leadership is needed to build public opposition to the Schwarzenegger agenda."

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