L.A. Times Politics is reporting that a recent column argued Democrats and independents should not automatically dismiss ideas proposed by Republicans. It highlighted two specific proposals from Republican legislators in California that were rejected by the Democratic-dominated state Legislature.
One proposal sought to make the California secretary of state officially nonpartisan, removing the office from partisan affiliation. The column noted that the secretary of state oversees elections, and while the current Democratic incumbent, Shirley Weber, has taken party-aligned policy positions, the office could logically operate as nonpartisan, similar to the state superintendent of public instruction or county voter registrars. Former Orange County Assemblyman Don Wagner, a Republican opponent to Weber, said the secretary should be a neutral arbiter.
The second proposal aimed to transfer the responsibility for writing official ballot proposition titles and summaries from the partisan attorney general to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. Both ideas, the column said, were introduced late in the legislative session and were effectively dead on arrival, with Democrats unlikely to support measures that could potentially allow Republicans to win statewide office in California, where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.