SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — California's long and contentious history with redistricting is back in the spotlight as the state prepares for a November 4 special election that could temporarily put lawmakers back in charge of drawing political maps.
Every 10 years, California must redraw its political districts after the census. But for decades, the fights over those maps were some of the ugliest battles in Sacramento.
In the 1970s and 1990s, stalemates between the Democratic legislature and Republican governor threw the issue to the courts. Political science professor Thad Kousser explains how those maps ended up getting drawn.
"The California state supreme court appointed special masters, people with expertise in districts, and they drew district lines following those two censuses," Kousser said.
In the 1980s, Democrats held full control of the Capitol. Congressman Phil Burton led the charge to engineer new maps that critics said heavily favored Democrats. It became known as the Burton Gerrymander.
"He was working with Cal Tech professor to create new data sets knowing exactly where people lived and trying to draw lines that seemed in many ways to have strange looking shapes and were designed to advance the interest of his party, the Democrats," Kousser said.
The plan was struck down by voters in a referendum and used in only one election.
By 2000, both parties cut a deal to protect incumbents. That frustration led voters to take matters into their own hands.
In 2008, voters passed Prop 11, the Voters First Act, creating the Citizens Redistricting Commission. Two years later, they expanded its authority to include congressional districts.
For the first time, politicians no longer had the final say. The commission's first maps came after the 2010 census. By most accounts, they created more competitive races and better reflected California's diverse communities.
Now, with a special election that could temporarily put lawmakers back in charge, California's decades of redistricting battles are front and center again.
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