SACRAMENTO (AP) _ In one of his last acts as Assembly speaker, Fabian Nunez on Tuesday proposed legislation to strip lawmakers of the power to draw their districts as a rival measure backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared to be headed for the November ballot.

Nunez’s plan also would renew attempts to modify legislators’ term limits, in a way similar to that proposed under Proposition 93, which was defeated by California voters in February.

Nunez said the redistricting initiative supported by Schwarzenegger, Common Cause and several other groups “leaves a lot of holes in what I consider to be a very complex task.” He denied that his proposal was an attempt to torpedo that initiative.

“My goal is to have everybody supporting this (proposal), including the people advancing the initiative that the governor supports,” he said during a news conference a week before he is scheduled to step down as speaker. “I don’t know that we can get there, but that certainly will be my goal.”

Supporters of the Common Cause proposal, which would create a 14-member redistricting commission, announced Tuesday they had collected 1.2 million signatures to put the plan on the Nov. 4 ballot. They need valid signatures of at least 694,354 registered voters to make it.

Jeannine English, California state president of AARP, said her group and other supporters of the Common Cause initiative tried to work out an agreement with Nunez over the last three years on a redistricting reform plan and failed.

“I’m just not sure why the speaker at this time would decide to propose another legislative solution that hasn’t been well-vetted,” she said.

English said the Common Cause proposal would create a “fully transparent” redistricting process and avoid gerrymandering that benefits incumbents.

A spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger’s ballot committee, the California Dream Team, also was skeptical.

Julie Soderlund said the Legislature had tried “numerous times and failed to pass comprehensive redistricting reform.”

“The governor is not going to wait and hope they fulfill a promise when they’ve showed a lack of willingness to do so in the past,” she said.

After the 2005 special election, Nunez and his Senate counterpart, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, had promised a wide-ranging political reform package that would pair a modification of term limits with a redistricting change. It would create a political reform package that could have generated bipartisan support.

Instead, they tried unsuccessfully only to lengthen their time in office, pouring money into the failed Proposition 93 campaign.

The boundaries for California’s legislative and congressional districts were last drawn after the 2000 census in a way that largely protects the status quo for both parties. Critics say the process represents a conflict of interest because lawmakers map their own districts. They also say can lead to intense partisanship.

Because most districts are heavily Democratic or Republican, seats typically are won by very liberal or very conservative candidates. That dynamic often leads to stalemate in the Legislature, especially on issues requiring a two-thirds vote.

California voters have been asked four times since 1982 whether they wanted to take redistricting duties away from lawmakers. All failed, including Proposition 77 during the 2005 special election, which was supported by Schwarzenegger.

Nunez said his reform plan remained a “work in progress.” Its details will have to be negotiated with legislative Republicans and Senate Democrats, and it would need two-thirds majorities in both houses and approval by voters to pass.

Lawmakers have until June 26 to put proposals on the November ballot, but that deadline has been stretched in the past.

As introduced, Nunez’s constitutional amendment would create a 17-member commission that would redraw state Senate and Assembly districts after each national census.

Like Proposition 93 in February, the term limits portion of the measure would allow future legislators to serve up to 12 years instead of the current limit of 14 years, but the time could be spent in one house instead of split between the Assembly and Senate.

Unlike the February initiative, current lawmakers would be subject to term limits now in effect. That would allow someone to serve no more than six years in the Assembly and eight years in the Senate in most instances if Nunez’s proposal took effect.

Proposition 93 would have allowed sitting legislators to serve up to 12 years in their current houses no matter how much time they had spent in the other house.

Nunez will be termed out of office at the end of the year because Proposition 93 failed. He said the current term limits leave lawmakers with too little time to figure out to solve complicated problems.

“I don’t like to give up,” he said of his effort. “I like to come back and figure out how to do things.”

Nunez’s reform plan also would prohibit campaign fundraising by the governor and legislators from the time the governor issues his final state budget recommendations in mid-May until the Legislature adopts a spending plan.

Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, indicated a willingness to work with Nunez and said the power to draw legislative districts must be taken away from lawmakers.

___

On the Net: www.assembly.ca.gov and www.ss.ca.gov

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.