Don't fall for Proposition 93's misleading advertising

My column today dissects the political ads that urge you to loosen California's term limits law. The problem with the sponsors' argument is that it doesn't tell the full story about the issue. Democratic leaders had promised to couple a redistricting reform measure with the term-limits change. They didn't. The only measure that got on the Feb. 5 ballot was the self-serving initiative to loosen term limits.

This is part of what I say about the ads in today's commentary:

Here's some of what is left out. Assembly Speaker Fabián Núñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata promised to combine a change in term limits with reforming the way boundaries of legislative districts are created in California.

Right now, legislators draw the lines of their own districts to make elections as noncompetitive as possible. They have become very good at protecting their careers from the democratic process.

You could argue that it would be good public policy to loosen term limits a bit if that reform had been coupled with a measure to give redistricting powers to an independent commission. That was what was supposed to have happened this year.

Guess what? They skipped the part about reforming redistricting, but dummied up a group to put a term-limits measure on the ballot. So much for keeping their word.