Maps have a few more hurdles, but should stand up
by Brian Leubitz
Well, the vote was due on August 15, but why not go ahead and figure out how things are going to go early? Apparently, the maps, viewable here, are set to have sufficient votes.
New legislative, congressional and Board of Equalization boundaries were tentatively approved today by California’s Citizen Redistricting Commission, ending months of hearings, public comments and debate.
Final action will be taken Aug. 15 on the maps, which are expected to be used for next year’s statewide races.
The 53-district congressional plan nearly was killed by Republicans, receiving no votes from GOP members Michael Ward and Jodie Filkins Webber. Three other Republicans on the panel gave the maps thumbs up.(SacBee)
The CRP will likely sue to block implementation, as well any number of other smaller groups, but any major changes seem unlikely. Perhaps a border here or there, but the CRP isn’t all that likely to get the wholesale changes they are looking for. While a 2/3 majority in both houses seems a stretch, I think you’d have to say that these maps make at least somewhat more likely.
One more thing, I must now admit that I was wrong that the commission would not be able to come up with an agreed upon map. Well, it appears that I was wrong, and that the commission was able to find consensus. How quaint.
or are there only 4 board of equalization districts on that map? i though there were supposed to be 5. did i imagine that?
I didn’t get anyone wanting to talk about the new maps. So I’ll try again. I live in Ojai and I’m really liking the 24th Congressional District, the 19th State Senate, and the 37th Assembly. It looks to me that we may be able to replace three Republicans with three Democrats! It looks like Das Williams of the 35th Assembly seat will have to shift and run in the 37th.
It looks like the map may be pitting Mike Thompson against George Miller. That should be an interesting race. If we get to keep Miller and trade Thompson for Jared Huffman I would call that a deal.
Now that Nevada County will be freed of NO REPRESENTATION – Tom McClintock represents the Tea Party and apparently his own universe, certainly not the general population in CD-04 – I am hearing that Tom McClintock will be Carpetbagging again for the new district (Foothills, I think) as he does not live in the new district, either.
IMHO, having Tom return to Congress in 2012 is a HUGE mistake. It didn’t take him long for Congress to act almost exactly as our State Republican Senators and Assemblypersons.
If I had the power I would direct the California Democratic Party to spend whatever it takes to get a highly qualified Democrat and the bankroll to make the new district DEMOCRATIC. Favor Republican, is said of the new Foothllls district. Favor is not a given. Anyone in the Democratic Party reading this? 🙂
One last thing, a shortfall of the current County democratic CCC is that they do not coordinate by Congressional or State districts. That has to happen as you will not win a single close race if every county dies its own thing vs Republican candidates. Ponder that for a while!
Some folks are pleased as punch that the new maps “make sense” by reducing gerrymandering, others see the new maps as the pathways to a different ratio of Dems/GOP in the Legislature, and still others are delighted that some incumbents will have to move or retire.
To me, it’s all pretty much the same. The lines that bisect and wiggle thru my community mean my family and our neighbors will continue to be ignored by our Legislators and Congressional Reps. We (me and 100K others) live in an old, fully-urbanized unincorporated community. The blunt knife of redistricting always trims the crust off the bread of the sandwich in a ragged sort of way by ripping through unincorporated urban edge areas like ours. The new CD lines, for example, meander all over the middle of my neighborhood, running a block up one street then u-turning down another block. Several streets within our neighborhood have houses in one CD on one side of the street and another CD on the other side of the same street, but only for a block or two.
Our neighborhood and our community know from long experience that Legislators and Congress Critters don’t waste their time caring about constituents who live along the squiggly edges of their Districts. Our “community of interests” doesn’t matter.