I urge all Californians to vote No on Prop 93, the term limits proposition. It's an obviously deceptive measure that pretends to limit term limits for legislators, but which in fact would allow people like Fabian Nunez, Don Perata, and Gil Cedillo to remain in office instead of being termed out.

In fact, if the proposition passes, Nunez could remain Speaker until 2014 and Perata Senate president until 2012. For more information, see the opposition site at stopprop93.com.

Those who will be termed out also include such worthies as Lloyd Levine, Paty Berg, Mervyn Dymally, Betty Karnette, Mark Leno, Sheila Kuehl, and Gloria Romero. A full list is in the PDF available here. Unfortunately, Tom McClintock would also be affected, but at least temporarily depriving the rest of their power is worth it.

Those who are pushing the proposition (link) include the CA Democratic Party, former governor Gray Davis, Rep. Barbara Lee, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, and various union, business, racial power, and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club of California. Needless to say, those groups have power over many of the legislators who would be affected.

Another pusher is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who offered "Reform term limits" (link) earlier this month and even appears in an ad for the measure (link). Oddly enough, he doesn't mention that the measure is obviously intended to deceive and would keep people like Nunez and Cedillo in power.

Related to that:

But state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the only other Republican holding statewide office in California, suggested Schwarzenegger agreed to back Proposition 93 to get concessions from legislative leaders on other issues... "That's my conclusion after looking at all the facts I have," said Poizner, a wealthy former Silicon Valley businessman who has contributed $1.5 million of his own money to the anti-93 campaign. "I'm disappointed and not too surprised that in this type of environment that the governor got pushed into a corner where he thought he had to make this kind of a deal in order to make progress with legislative leaders." ...Schwarzenegger is seeking legislative support this year for a $14 billion health care reform plan, a constitutional amendment to change the state budgeting process and massive upgrades to the state's water system.