Julie Soderlund, press whiz and top-notch consultant for the California Dream Team, Governor Schwarzenegger's political committee, has been sending out newspaper editorial after newspaper editorial endorsing the governor's latest effort to take reapportionment out of the hands of the California legislature.

Reapportionment reform is a good idea, sure. Legislators drawing their own districts is a conflict of interest, and a lack of political competition -- exacerbated by a bipartisan gerrymander in 2001 -- is a significant factor in California's legislative gridlock. And most of the editorials make strong points. But they don't make much difference.

In 2005, Schwarzenegger backed Proposition 77, another reapportionment reform initiative. And he had the endorsements of every significant newspaper in the state. Of the 36 largest papers in California, Prop. 77 was endorsed by... 36.

Papers of every ideological stripe backed it. It lost anyway. Voters either didn't understand the issue, or didn't care. Democrats argued it was a right-wing power grab. Look for apathy (recession and budget revenues will outweigh redistricting in voters' minds) and partisan objections to sink this measure too. It's become almost an iron law of California politics: reapportionment measures fail.

Update: The outstanding Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton, a friend and former colleague, is older in years but younger in spirit than me, and he takes an optimistic view in today's column that now may be the time for reform, both of reapportionment and the budget.