(Sacramento Bee) So why the rush? Yes, allowing legislators to draw their own safe districts invites cynical self-dealing, as it did after the 2000 census, though given the state's political geography, no reform will create the large number of competitive districts some people expect.

Even Common Cause, which supports redistricting by commission, opposes the mid-decade redistricting the governor wants as a bad precedent and, since it would have to be based on outdated census figures, very possibly as unconstitutional. In any case, there almost certainly won't be enough time for a commission to redistrict the state and for legal challenges to be exhausted before the 2006 election.

That leaves only two reasons for a costly special election: to put pressure on the Legislature for a deal on the budget, and possibly on reapportionment, and to feed the expensive political machine that the governor has attached to himself.

It's the dream of every campaign consultant, said Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, to turn seasonal jobs into full-time work. Why limit campaigns to every other year when you can have them around the clock? If there's a special election this fall, it will be the sixth statewide election in 3 1/2 years.