A nonprofit coalition known as the ProRep Coalition has gained attention in California as several statewide political parties have recently joined its ranks. This coalition aims to bring about significant changes to the state’s electoral system, advocating for a shift away from single-member, plurality-elected districts in favor of a proportional representation system. Organizers announced the effort earlier this year.
In an attempt to tackle these concerns, proponents affiliated with the ProRep Coalition are putting forth a set of comprehensive reforms to revamp California’s electoral process. The proposed changes seek to establish a multi-party democracy, taking inspiration from successful models observed in other nations. To supporters, such a system would offer voters a broader spectrum of candidates and policies, encouraging greater engagement and reducing the influence of special interests.
The ProRep Coalition has set its sights on a ballot initiative to go before voters over the next several years and centered around several significant reforms. Notable among these issues is the proposal to expand the size of the California legislature and transition from single-member electoral districts to multi-member regions. Additionally, the coalition seeks to move away from the conventional “winner-take-all” approach while advocating for ballot redesign to encourage partisan diversity. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of studying other established democracies, like Germany, that have effectively implemented proportional representation systems.
The coalition’s efforts have garnered support from several political parties, including a mix of organizations active in California and those not yet ballot-qualified. Notably, the California Green Party and the California Peace and Freedom Party have recently declared their support, making announcements in late June and early July, respectively. In its press statement, the Green Party blasted the current system, calling it “uniquely antiquated, unrepresentative, and unresponsive.”
“We have the same amount of legislators as we did in the 1860s, our winner-takes-all elections have created a duopoly that offer voters few meaningful options, and Sacramento has consistently failed to pass legislation that would benefit hard-working Californians,” the California Greens wrote. “Yet, when looking at democracies around the world, the vast majority function far more effectively and have multiple parties representing citizens in their legislatures. We should too.”
The Peace and Freedom Party, whose members joined in support last month but officially announced their support of the coalition on Monday afternoon, shared similar sentiments. “This is the widely accepted international standard for democratic elections, but the big-money forces in our country resist it strongly,” the Peace and Freedom Party writes. “[…] The Peace and Freedom Party has advocated for proportional representation for more than forty years, and welcomes the efforts of the ProRep Coalition.”
In its statement, the Peace and Freedom Party alluded that a convention is “in the works for 2024” to settle further details of the initiative.
The coalition also includes several party organizations not qualified to appear on the California ballot. This list comprises the American Solidarity Party, a self-identified Christian Democracy party advocating pro-life, pro-family, and pro-worker policies, and the California National Party, a progressive-minded pro-secessionist organization organized in 2015. The California Forward Party also publicly supports the effort, though not listed as a formal coalition member. In a Tweet issued late last month, the Forward Party state affiliate writes that without a multi-party democracy with proportional representation, “Democracy will die and we will lose our freedoms.”
https://twitter.com/FWD_CA/status/1671985148676456448
While the Libertarian Party of California is neither formally involved with the effort nor a coalition member, there is additionally some libertarian input. Libertarian writer and former Libertarian Party congressional candidate Andrew Craig of the Rainey Center and Cato Institute serves on the ProRep Coalition advisory board.
It appears only the left and far left parties support this.
Meh.
Along with focus on Florida-style democracy, and condominia legality (i.e. libertarian communism/socialism), this has fallen off the radar for the USLP. So you have people echoing materials from the right or left. I blame the failures of LNC to set up / maintain proper documentation process, losing the institutional history., though some good efforts are underway…
The original focus was on a) Fusion candidate legality, and b) Simplified MMP proportional representation, as Libertarians got done in NZ via the ACT and periodically puts in a libertarian…basically’ at-large bonus’ members for each 5% of the vote. That would give the LP 2-3 legislators in every state.
Another problem in CA is the disconnect with top-two and that local legislative districts (last I knew) are larger than Congressional…not to mention usual crazy ballot access rules etc.
DD, Fusion, MMP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-member_proportional_representation
1. Neither the Democrats nor Republicans (as much as they exist in California) are party to this effort when they control 100% of legislative seats in California, so nothing is going to happen legislatively to make this occur as neither of the two major parties will ever seek to reduce their influence as long as they get the most votes.
2. Their other option is the California referendum to take it directly to voters, which yeah you can try that. Gotta get a lot of signatures and deal with both major parties actively working against them.