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Texas’s dominant Republicans are working to redraw the state’s congressional districts in an effort to increase the number of GOP-held seats following the midterm elections, under pressure from President Donald Trump.
The House of Representatives is a paper-thin majority for Republicans. Trump wants mid-decade redistricting to reduce the likelihood of a change in the congressional regime because he clearly fears that Democrats will take control next year.
In the meantime, Governor Gavin Newsom and lawmakers aim to negate whatever Texas does by redrawing California’s congressional districts in an attempt to counteract the blatantly partisan effort in Texas. It has a slight resemblance to the famous Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons, or the Spy vs. Spy comic strip from MAD Magazine that baby boomers may remember.
Nonetheless, it is not amusing to trample on the quaintly democratic idea that congressional districts ought to fairly reflect the traits and ideals of their voters in the pursuit of party political dominance.
According to Newsom, the Legislature should put a bill on the November ballot that would temporarily suspend the state’s constitutional mandate that an impartial panel conduct redistricting once every ten years.
According to what happens or doesn’t happen in Texas, it’s cause and effect, Newsom stated this week. I hope they act morally because if they do, there won’t be any need for us to proceed.
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Newsom wants voters to weigh in on new congressional districts in November
Whatever happens, it’s just another chapter in California’s tumultuous redistricting history.
The state Supreme Court stepped in and established its own system to create new maps when Republican Governor Ronald Reagan and Democratic legislative leaders couldn’t agree on redistricting following the 1970 census.
After the 1980 census, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, and Phil Burton, who led the state’s congressional delegation, drew a number of strange-looking, politically lopsided districts. One of these districts was referred to as “my contribution to modern art” by Burton.
Through a referendum, Republicans convinced voters to reject the maps. The state Supreme Court, however, ruled that the contested maps would still be utilized for the 1982 election. Brown and lawmakers only accepted slightly modified versions following that election.
The state Supreme Court canceled the Republican attempt to use a ballot initiative to alter the Democratic maps, stating that the state constitution only allowed for one redistricting every ten years. Speaker Brown praised Sister Rose and the Supremes in public, mentioning Chief Justice Rose Bird, who was removed by voters a few years later for a number of reasons.
The Supreme Court intervened once more after a standoff between Republican Governor Pete Wilson and Democratic lawmakers following the 1990 census. Even though Democrat Gray Davis was the governor at the time of the 2000 census, leaders from both parties created a bipartisan gerrymander that frozen the current number of members in the Legislature and the congressional delegation.
Charles Munger Jr., a very rich physicist and the son of renowned businessman and investor Charlie Munger, supported Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempt to change redistricting after Davis was recalled. Despite resistance from both parties, voters approved their 2008 proposal to establish an independent commission for parliamentary seats and a 2010 measure to expand its jurisdiction to congressional districts.
Due in significant part to demographic trends and dwindling GOP voter registration, the commission’s maps, which were created following the 2010 and 2020 censuses, assisted Democrats in gaining supermajorities in legislative houses and the congressional delegation.
Only nine of the state’s 53 congressional seats are now held by Republicans, and Newsom is prepared to slash that number in half. According to him, the updated districts would remain in place until the commission is resurrected following the census in 2030.
However, California may lose up to four seats during the 2030 census due to its essentially nonexistent population growth. Would Democrats be prepared to go back to the commission system they once hated after gaining more control over redistricting?
CalMatters has further information.
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