California was one of the states to which Texas Democrat lawmakers recently fled in order to avoid voting on their state's new district maps.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of the Golden State has vowed that if Texas passes its new maps, he will further gerrymander California’s maps as a countermeasure.
Well, voters in Newsom's state may have a little something to say about that.
When it comes to gerrymandered maps, California is among the worst in the country.
According to rough estimates, Democrats win federal elections there in a 60-40 split with Republicans.
However, the state only has nine of its 52 House seats assigned to Republicans, about half of what it should be according to voting numbers.
Yet, Newsom is acting as though he has the moral high ground by stating that he will eliminate at least the five seats gained in Texas, if not all of the GOP seats in California.
Newsom is clearly making a move for the 2028 presidential election, so now he is taking it upon himself to fight back against the bad orange man.
In part, Newsom stated, “California will not sit idle as Trump and his Republican lapdogs shred our country’s democracy before our very eyes. In just six months, Trump’s unchecked power has cost Americans billions and taken an ax to the greatest democracy we’ve ever known.”
He continued, “This moment calls for urgency and action -- that is what we are putting before voters this November, a chance to fight back against his anti-American ways.”
Again, I don’t support gerrymandering, but the fact of the matter is that we see it by the party in charge in virtually every large state and every battleground state, and California’s maps are a perfect example of how political parties are controlling outcomes.
Newsom plans on putting the gerrymandering measure on the ballot, but he could be in for a rude awakening when he sees the results.
A poll was recently taken to survey California voters on whether they support such a change to the maps, and the measure was approved by only 36%, with the remaining 64% wanting to see the current system left in place.
Currently, a so-called independent panel drafts the maps, but Newsom wants to turn the maps over to the state legislature for the 2026 cycle, then return the power to the panel in 2030, so it can be in place once the new census is taken.
I have always thought that we should have an independent and non-partisan panel draw maps in every state, but the problem is that it is virtually impossible to do these days in this political environment. If California’s maps are an example of what an independent panel produces, we have no chance of ever seeing honest maps in this country.
