Question: who was the only incumbent state Congressman in California to lose the election in 2004?
Answer: none! out of 153 Congressional seats, not a single one changed hands from one party to the other.
You can read about Proposition 77 here.
The basic premise is that we’ve allowed legislators to do their own redistricting for a long time (in particular in 2001), and now they never lose elections. The new plan sets a panel of independent, retired judges in California and asks them to draw the lines in publicly held hearings, which voters then can accept or reject. Its a pretty great plan, and probably is the single most important proposition on the ballot!
Definitely vote YES.
Here is a really good site (http://www.yeson77.com/) which talks about it. Check out what the politicians have done to “redistrict” so that they can’t lose. Its absolutely incredible.