Power Rangers mogul has a political change of heart

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Two years ago, Haim Saban gave $200,000 to a ballot measure to change the way legislative districts are drawn. Now, he’s given $2 million to the effort to repeal the very measure that he helped pass in November 2008.

Saban, who made his fortune in the entertainment industry as the producer of the children’s show “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” gave $2 million to the Yes on Fair committee, which is seeking to repeal Proposition 11. That measure, passed in 2008, took the power of drawing legislative districts out of the hands of the Legislature and gave it instead to a new, independent commission.

Why the change of heart?

[Updated 8:32 a.m.]“While Mr. Saban supported the passage of Proposition 11 in 2008 as a good idea, it hasn’t worked out as intended because the state’s diverse population has not been adequately represented in the process of selecting members of an independent commission,” a Saban spokeswoman said in a statement. “Accordingly, Mr. Saban does not support expanding the commission concept to Congressional redistricting and has agreed to make a loan to support the qualification of the FAIR ballot initiative.”

Proposition 11 was the pet issue of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008. Though the measure was not vigorously opposed by Democrats in Congress at the time, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) is among the Democrats who have given to the effort to repeal it.

Saban has been a generous Democratic donor, giving money to Jerry Brown, Mayor Antonio Villariagosa, and the Los Angles County Democratic Central Committee.

-- Anthony York in Sacramento