According to the Mercury News, Ted Costa and others are preparing a redistricting reform for the November 2004 ballot. Note that this is not a Texas-style power-shift, but a Constitutional amendment to remove the power from the Legislature and to put it in the hands of randomly-selected retired judges.
Hopefully it would include a prohibition on using party registration or precinct voting data, and would ignore current district lines and the wishes of incumbants. It should also constitutionally prohibit gerrymanders.
It is no reform to substitute one gerrymander for another, as Texas appears to have done -- even if the result is less unfair. Even a fair distribution of seats, locked into safe districts (as CA arguably now has), is contrary to the principles of free and fair elections. People should choose their representatives, not the other way around
No doubt the Usual Suspects will cast this as the end of the Republic.
Hat tip: The Irish Lass