Ex-Governors Blame Legislature (California)

[Judi Lynn]

February 18, 2004


CALIFORNIA
Ex-Governors Blame Legislature
The former leaders say term limits and safe districts contribute to the state's political dysfunction.

By Michael Finnegan, Times Staff Writer


Four former governors of California gathered on a Silver Lake sound stage Tuesday night and shared ideas about how the state could reform its political system and overcome its crippling dysfunction.

In a freewheeling conversation to be televised statewide Thursday, the former governors — Gray Davis, Pete Wilson, George Deukmejian and Jerry Brown — said safe legislative districts and term limits had created a polarized culture in the capital that bedeviled any incumbent.

The former governors, representing 30 continuous years in office, also traded thoughts on the challenges facing their successor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And they commiserated on the trials of doing business with 120 members of the Legislature, focusing much of their one-hour chat on how to make lawmakers shape up.

"Gray had maybe the most irresponsible Legislature within memory," Wilson said.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-governors18feb18,1,2955014.story?coll=la-headlines-california

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