The Golden State is doing things a little differently than the Lone Star State.
Residents in San Diego will get a say.
“California voters set up a process a couple decades ago to let an independent commission draw the line. So the legislature can't do this on their own,” said Thad Kousser, a Political Science Professor at UCSD.
California’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission: That's who usually handles issues like these.
But as Texas steps into a mid-decade redistricting fight, so will California voters.
“So Texans didn't really get too much of a say in it, but Californians will?” I asked.
“Yeah, Texas doesn't have an initiative process that works in any way like Californians. They don't have an independent redistricting commission, and so the republican majority in their statehouse was able to act unilaterally to do this,” said Kousser.
On November 4, voters will either adopt or drop the new plans for the next 3 congressional campaigns. 50 percent plus one of the voters will be needed for approval.
If that happens, Kousser says San Diego could look a little more blue.
“San Diego, nearly every district is now held by democrats. It's just Darrell Issa's seat, and it could be at risk. So the map for the state could really change what representation is like in San Diego and could potentially leave us with only democrats in Congress,” said Kousser.
The second special election in the last few years comes with another big price tag.
California Assembly Republicans say it’ll cost around $150 to $236 million.
“During that election, democrats said that's way too much to pay. Now Republicans are saying this is too much to pay for a special election,” said Kousser.
“California actually does have a lot more Republicans than people think on the outside. Newsom says he's trying to do this for Californians, but what kind of backlash do you think he's going to get from his own state?” I asked.
Well, Gavin Newsom has his work cut out for him. A new poll that came out today said voters' initial take on this is they don't want to get rid of this independent process that took politics out of the redistricting process. So Gavin Newsom is going to have to convince both members of his own party at the same time, fighting off republican opposition to his plan, but he obviously is relishing the battle and thinks it's necessary to fight Donald Trump,” said Kousser.
