California government and politics

This article is about California government and politics.

California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government, the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other elected constitutional officers, the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate, and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The State also allows direct participation of the electorate by referendum, recall, and ratification.

California is unique by having a partisan system for the state government while banning political parties from being involved in county, city, or other local elections.

Constitution

California's constitution is one of the longest laws in the world, taking up over 10,000 sheets of paper. Part of this length is caused by the fact that most voter initiatives take the form of a constitutional amendment, as the state Legislature can easily overturn any law with the governor's consent, while a constitutional amendment requires an election to be ratified.

Executive Branch

California's executive branch is headed by the Governor. Other executive positions are the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, State Controller, Insurance Commissioner, and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. All offices are elected separately to concurrent four-year terms. Each officer may be elected to an office a maximum of two times.

The Governor has the powers and responsibilities to: sign or veto laws passed by the Legislature, including a line item veto; appoint judges, subject to ratification by the electorate; propose a state budget; give the annual State of the State Address; command the state militia; and grant pardons for any crime, except cases involving impeachment by the Legislature. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor also serve as ex officio members of the University of California Board of Regents.

The Lieutenant Governor is the President of the California Senate and acts as the governor when the Governor is unable to execute the office, including whenever the Governor leaves the state. As the offices are elected separately, the two are likely to be from separate parties (Currently the case with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrat Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante), commonly the Lt. Governor will appoint judges to vacant seats and sign bills the Governor would normally veto while he is executing the office.

As for the actual state government which the Governor oversees, it is organized into several dozen departments, of which most (but not all) have been grouped together (somewhat confusingly) into agencies to reduce the number of people who report directly to the Governor. For example, the California Department of Transportation is part of the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency.

Many of the groupings are bizarre and counterintuitive. The Department of Managed Health Care is part of Business, Transportation, and Housing, rather than the Health and Human Services Agency. And the Department of Industrial Relations (which, among many duties, inspects most elevators in California) is part of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, not Business, Transportation and Housing.

Some departments are made up of many smaller units. For example, the Department of Consumer Affairs consists of about 40 bureaus, offices and boards which supervise a variety of professions and occupations.

Legislative Branch

Constitutional Basis

The basic form of law in California is a republic, governed by democratically elected state Senators and Assembly members. The governing law is a constitution, interpreted by the California Supreme Court, whose members are appointed by the Governor, and ratified at the next general election. The constitution can be changed by initiatives passed by voters. Initiatives can be proposed by the governor, legislature, or by popular petition, giving California one of the most flexible legal systems in the world. The constitution makes the California legislature bicameral, with a Senate and an Assembly.

Redistricting

California's legislature has engaged in some rather unusual redistricting practices. The result is that virtually all Assembly and Senate district lines have been drawn in a way so as to favor one party or the other, and it is rare for a district to suddenly shift party allegiance. The state government is dominated by the Democratic Party, which controls the heavily populated coastal cities in Central and Southern California. The Republican Party is stronger in the Central Valley, most rural areas, and certain conservative suburbs like Orange County.

Recordkeeping

The proceedings of the California Legislature are briefly summarized in regularly published journals, which show votes and who proposed or withdrew what. However, because of the expense and the obvious political downsides, California does not keep verbatim records of actual speeches made by Assembly members and Senators. As a result, reconstructing legislative intent outside of an act's preamble is extremely difficult in California.

Legislative Committees

The most sought-after legislative committee appointments are to banking, agriculture and insurance. These are sometimes called "juice" committees, because they aid in the fundraising of their members.

Legislative Analyst

A unique institution is the state legislative analyst, whose office of several hundred persons analyzes the effects of laws for the California legislature. The analyst's most visible public act is to write the impartial ballot booklet analyses of likely effects of initiatives and bond measures placed before the voters.

Codification In California

It should be noted that California was one of the first states, along with New York, to codify its statutes into named codes (Civil Code, Code of Civil Procedure, and so on). Why this is important requires a little explanation. Prior to the 1840s, legislatures in all common law jurisdictions passed "Acts" in a completely haphazard manner and published them in the order passed. The result was that to determine what the current statutory law was, a lawyer would have to find the earliest relevant act and then trace a path from past to present through a series of acts passed at different dates to determine which rules had been expanded, overruled, or superseded. The advantage of a code is that once the legislature gets into the habit of writing acts as amendments to the code, then the official copy of the code will reflect what the current statutory law is.

Since then, virtually all states and the federal government have followed the lead of California and New York and codified their statutes. However, they have preferred to write unitary codes (all statutes packaged into a single code) divided into subject-specific titles. Only California and New York have systems of separate subject-specific codes.

Many of the code sections have become famous throughout the U.S., like Business and Professions Code Section 17200 (unfair competition), Code of Civil Procedure Section 425.16 (anti-SLAPP special motion), and Penal Code Section 187 (murder).

Judicial Branch

The judicial system of California is the largest in the United States, with over 5,000 judges and hearing over 8 million cases a year. The system is divided into three levels, with the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal serving as appellate courts reviewing the decisions of the Superior Courts.

The California Supreme Court consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices, who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the California Commission on Judicial Appointments. Justices are also ratified by the electorate at the next general election following their appointment and at the end of each twelve year term. The Supreme Court's decisions are binding on all lower state courts. The court has original jurisdiction in a variety of cases, including habeas corpus proceedings, and has the authority to review all the decisions of the California Courts of Appeal, as well as an automatic appeal for cases where the death penalty has been issued by the trial court. The Supreme Court is headquartered in San Francisco, with branch offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento.

The California Courts of Appeal were added to the judicial branch by a constitutional amendment in 1904. The courts are organized into six districts, the First Appellate District in San Francisco, the Second District in Los Angeles, the Third District in Sacramento, the Fourth District in San Diego the Fifth District in Fresno, and the Sixth District in San Jose. The districts are further divided into 19 divisions throughout the state, and there are 105 justices serving on the Courts. Justices are selected, confirmed, and ratified just like the Supreme Court justices, although only the electorate in the appellate district vote to ratify the justices.

Each county in California has a Superior Court that hears all civil and criminal cases. Before 1998, each county also had a municipal court that heard some of the cases. In June, 1998, California passed Proposition 220, which allowed the judges in each county to determine if the county should have only one trial court. By 2001, all 58 counties had consolidated their courts into a single Superior Court. Judges are elected by the county residents for 6 year terms in nonpartisan elections. In the case of a vacancy the Governor fills the position by appointment. All Superior Court judges must have been either a member of the State Bar of California or a judge in the state for the 10 years prior to taking office.

Political Issues

There have been several constitutional crises over the last twenty years: The passage of term limits for the California legislature and elected constitutional officers (which was hotly argued state-wide, and debated in the Supreme Court of California); a test of the ratification process for the Supreme Court (in which a liberal chief justice, Rose Bird, was ousted); a full-fledged tax revolt, "Proposition 13," which resulted in the freezing of real estate tax rates at 1% of the property's last sale price; and a test of the state recall provision (in which Governor Gray Davis was recalled in a 2003 special election). Various anti-tax organizations remain well-funded and active.

Northern California's inland areas and Southern California (outside of Los Angeles) tend to be conservative, mostly Republican areas. Los Angeles and the Northern California coast tend to be liberal, mostly Democratic areas. Because most of the population is in Los Angeles and the northern coast, California tends to be liberal.

Among the state's divisive issues are water and water rights. Water is limited, mostly from mountain runoff (70%), wells (limited by salt-water incursion and overuse), and some Colorado River water (strictly limited by treaties with the other western states and Mexico). Waste water reclamation in California is already routine (for irrigation). City-dwellers' property taxes pay for most water projects, but 75% of the water is used by farmers. This causes periodic water-rights initiatives and tax revolts in the cities, especially during droughts, when city water is rationed so farmers can keep fruit trees and vineyards alive. Also, most water is in the north of the State, while most people are in the south. This causes many north vs. south disputes, the most famous being the Peripheral Canal, a proposed project to divert water from the Sacramento River delta (the San Francisco Bay Area) to Southern California (Los Angeles).

Land use is also divisive. High land prices mean that ordinary people keep a large proportion of their net worth in land. This leads them to agitate strongly about issues that can affect the prices of their home or investments. The most vicious local political battles concern local school boards (good local schools substantially raise local housing prices) and local land-use policies. In built-up areas it is extremely difficult to site new airports, dumps, or jails. Graft and developer influence on local politics might be rife, since many cities routinely employ eminent domain to make land available for development. A multi-city political battle was fought for several years in Orange County concerning the decommissioning of the huge El Toro Marine airbase. Orange County needs a new airport (pilot unions voted the existing airport, John Wayne, the least safe in the U.S.), but the noise could reduce land prices throughout the southern part of the county, including wealthy, politically-powerful Irvine.

Gun control is another divisive issue. In the cities, California has one of the U.S.'s most serious gang problems, and in some farming regions, some of the highest murder rates. The state also contains many individuals who desire to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families and property. The legislature has passed restrictive gun-control laws. Private purchase of semi-automatic rifles that look like military rifles is a felony. The law does not prohibit sales of semi-automatic hunting-style civilian weapons, which might be intended to be a distinction without a real difference. Pistols may be purchased and kept in one's home or place of business, but it is illegal to carry weapons or ammunition outside these areas without a concealed weapons permit, except in a locked area (car trunk) to licensed practice ranges or other legitimate uses (hunting, repair, collection, etc.) Most people find it impossible to get concealed weapons permits since they are issued at the arbitrary discretion of the local law enforcement officials. California is not a "shall issue" state for concealed weapons permits. (This information should not be taken as legal advice.) (ref. section 12000 of the California Penal Code (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=pen))

An excellent reference is California, Its Government and Politics by Michael J. Ross.

Congressional Representation

Many leading members of Congress are from California. Among the Republicans representing California in the House in the 108th Congress are Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier from the 26th District, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas from the 22nd District, Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter from the 52nd District, Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo from the 11th District, and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Chris Cox from the 48th District. Cox also chairs the Republican Policy Committee, making him the 4th ranking member in the House Republican leadership. Among the Democrats are Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi from the 8th District, Education and the Workforce Committee ranking member George Miller from the 7th District, and Intelligence Committee ranking member Jane Harman from the 36th District.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia article. Browse Wikipedia for more information.