The much discussed idea of removing the Legislature from the process of political map drawing is again the subject of some intense discussions at the Capitol.

On Thursday, Governor Schwarzenegger met privately with a group of strong supporters of redistricting, including former Senate GOP Leader Jim Brulte, former Democratic Assemblymember Fred Keeley, and Proposition 77 author/recall proponent Ted Costa. A senior advisor to the governor said in the meeting, Schwarzenegger pledged to spend much of next week trying to win passage of a redistricting proposal. The one most under discussion is SCA 3 by Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach). State elections officials have suggested that any additional items for the November ballot should be approved by the Legislature by next Friday… a tight timeline.

But as reported yesterday (here), there’s still some skepticism in the Legislature, especially among some Senate Democrats who balked at the plan in a closed-door caucus last month (a meeting that just happened to take place after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld much of the Texas legislature’s political map drawing authority, in a case from 2003).

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland), who had intended to have already moved SCA 3 forward, jokingly told reporters yesterday that “my predecessor (John Burton) always warned me about having caucuses.”

Schwarzenegger apparently wants to give it another push. However, most everyone agrees that two issues must be worked out: can the proposal to hand over district drawing power wait for the 2008 ballot? And to put it there, will enough legislators need a ’sweetener’ for this deal– namely, a modification of the state’s 16-year-old term limits law?

An administration official confirms term limits were talked about in the private meeting yesterday, mainly to see whether the issue does in fact need to be part of the deal. And as for a 2006 ballot measure versus a 2008 ballot measure… Perata said yesterday that he favors 2008,while an aide to the governor said Schwarzenegger is “open” to other options.