I agree 100%. I love this state but it sucks to see it manipulated over and over again by individuals with agendas and they ballot initiatives or their ability to block budgets and taxes. All of this is because of the flawed way our Constitution was written.

Let’s rid California of Prop 13, Howard Jarvas and Ronald Reagan for all time. Repeal 13 and change the ballot initiative process.

They're going to avoid "divisive" social issues:

Backers of the constitutional convention want to put a proposal on the November 2010 ballot that would narrowly focus the convention on budget reform and a few other specific matters. Divisive social issues like gay marriage would be excluded.

Could this have the impact of codifying prop 8 into the constitution more permanently by making it more difficult to amend?

If my state legislators avoid this "divise" social issue, they avoid ever getting support from me.

I just contacted my State Senator, Alan Lowenthal (who's been a consistent supporter of equal rights).

His staff said that it was "very unlikely" that he would support taking social issues (specifically, Prop 8) off the table during a Constitutional Convention.

Nice to know that some legislators aren't cowards.

If you live in California, and want to know if your rep is with us:
http://www.senate.ca.gov
http://www.assembly.ca.gov

This is a really tricky avenue in regards prop 8, because we'd have to make sure we don't make it extra-extra hard to take out the gay marriage ban. Our community has to be ultimately aware of the affects this constitutional convention would have on our rights, before we even think about the budget.

That said, this is an absolutely necessary step at this point. The system needs reform, reform, reform, because our state has become ungovernable.

There is nothing good that a constitutional convention can do that cannot be done by a regular amendment or a regular revision. There is a lot of bad that can be done in the smoke filled back room of a constitutional convention, that could never be done in an open amendment or revision process. It isn't about the resulting text. The difference is about the devils that can be hidden in the details. During an extended public debate, there is an opportunity to examine the document and have, well, a debate. But in a closed convention, the few powerful people who are in the room get to make all the decisions, and we can be sure of only one thing: they will make those decisions to benefit themselves.

@Steve:

This convention idea has some momentum because of the question: can direct democracy work? The reason there's impetus for this constitutional convention is that the referendum process has tied the CA government's hands in budgetary ways so consistently, that the state is in a chronic state of inertia. We have legislators to make laws, enough of this majority rule business that willy-nilly tries to enact nice-sounding laws with no appreciation of the bigger picture.

The Constitutional Convention will not have any affect on proposition 8 or any other culture issues like abortion.

The ballot initiative being prepared to call for the convention contains language that specifically restricts the mandate of the convention to consider reforms only for state finances and political organization.

You can learn more about the California Constitutional Convention here at repaircalifornia.org