Kern lawmakers not on board with Newsom's redistricting fight

Yahoo

2 days ago

Kern County's local lawmakers universally condemned proposals from Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw the state's congressional district, but were mostly quiet about efforts by other states to do the same thing.
The offices of each of Kern County's six lawmakers in the state Legislature and U.S. House of Representatives did not respond to The Californian's specific questions on the matter, but did give a statement on the plans in California largely defending the state's independent redistricting committee.
"No political party should manipulate redistricting for their own gain. California voters have made it clear: Politicians shouldn't draw their own maps," Assemblyman Stan Ellis, R-Bakersfield, said in an email.
"Gov. Newsom's efforts to skew the lines for more seats undermine democracy. We must prioritize the will of the people over partisan politics and uphold fair representation," he said.
Yet a defense of democracy is precisely what Newsom and his supporters say California is trying to do.
"He knows he's going to lose in the midterms, and we have the opportunity to de-facto end the Trump presidency in less than 18 months," Newsom told reporters on Aug. 4.
"That's what's at stake. That's why we're putting a stake in the ground. We're not drawing lines just to draw lines; we're holding the line on democracy."
Newsom was referring to efforts by the state of Texas to potentially redraw four of its Congressional districts. Current plans from Republican lawmakers in that state could potentially add five Republicans to the already narrowly divided U.S. House.
Texas Democrats have fled the state in an effort to stall the process.
Several governors — Democrats in Illinois and New York, Republicans in Ohio and Missouri — have indicated their willingness to enlist their state in a gerrymandering arms race if other states do the same.
Newsom has met with state legislative leaders and suggested holding a special session on the matter. But Kern County's state lawmakers from both parties said they're not interested.
"The governor's efforts to gerrymander Congressional districts is pure politics and voters will see it for what it is — an end run around the state's voter approved redistricting commission," state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, said in a statement.
"I support Congressman Kevin Kiley's efforts to pass a federal law prohibiting changes to congressional district lines as the best solution to this partisan mess being created," she said.
Kiley, a Placer County Republican, has proposed legislation that would prevent any new state maps from taking effect before 2030.
Kern County's Democratic state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, did not respond to request for comment.
Delano Assembly member Dr. Jasmeet Bains called efforts in Texas "an affront to democracy" and said she opposed any effort to circumvent independent redistricting.
"(Texas') gerrymandered maps are an electoral fraud. I will not sit by and watch two political parties destroy the concept of fair elections," Bains said in an email.
"This has become a race to the bottom where an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. We don't need more ways for politicians to rig the system."
Bains also called for courts to intervene. But that's not likely to happen, according to UCLA law professor Richard Hansen.
"In 2019 the (U.S.) Supreme Court in the Rucho case held that federal courts would not intervene against partisan gerrymandering," Hansen said in an email.
That decision — decided in a 5-4 split between the courts conservative and liberal justices — found the court had no 'judicially manageable standard' for determining at what point a partisan gerrymander becomes unconstitutional.
The issue is particularly complex for Bains, who recently announced she was running for California's 22nd Congressional District, meaning she would be voting to redraw the very districts she's looking to win.
The Associated Press reported Monday one of the proposals currently being considered in California includes the 22nd as one of the districts that would see right-leaning voters shaved and Democratic voters boosted, a shift that would make it likely a left-leaning candidate would prevail in each race.
The district is currently held by U.S. Rep. David Valadao, one of California's nine Congressional Republicans. Even before the redistricting issue, the 22nd was seen as one of the most competitive in the nation with candidates able to pull in millions of dollars from outside donors.
In an email, Valadao's campaign strategist Robert Jones defended the state's independent redistricting commission.
"California voters made it clear in 2008 that they wanted an independent commission, not partisan politicians like Jasmeet Bains, drawing their own districts for their own personal gain," Jones said. "That's corruption of the highest order."
Bains' role in the potential redistricting quickly became fodder for Republican campaigners. In a statement Wednesday morning, regional spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee Christian Martinez accused Bains of supporting Newsom's redistricting plans.
Martinez acknowledged in a text to The Californian he had not seen a statement from Bains regarding the issue. On Thursday, after Bains made statement condemning the governor's plan, Martinez released a new statement calling on Bains to recuse herself from the process.
Kern County's other congressional Republican, Vince Fong, said partisan gerrymandering was precisely what Californians voted against when they overwhelmingly supported the creation of the independent redistricting commission.
"Newsom, flanked by Texas Democrats, announced that he stands ready to take power away from the Citizens Commission and place it back into the hands of Sacramento politicians to further his left-wing political agenda," Fong said in an email.
"As a delegation we will fight any attempt to disenfranchise California voters by whatever means necessary to ensure the will of the people continues to be reflected in redistricting and in our elections."
Any new electoral maps drafted by the state Legislature would have to be approved by voters in California. It's not clear whether the public would approve of the measures.
Several groups have come forward calling on the state not to abandon its independent redistricting process even as other states move to boost the number of seats for a specific party.
"Our feeling is that once you break that safeguard, you don't just risk the one election. You set a precedent that future politicians could use," said Helen Hutchinson, interim executive director for the League of Women Voters of California.
Hutchinson said Californians worked hard to take redistricting out of the hands of politicians and completely circumvent the process was "a race to the bottom."
"We really understand that urgency and we think that authoritarianism is not an abstract. It's here and it's really dangerous," Hutchinson said.
"But we think the way to fight it is not to abandon one of our greatest democratic reforms here in California, the idea is to lead with ideas and policies that inspire voters, not with shortcuts that further erode public trust in the government."