As keen observers and active participants in California politics, we’ve seen some very bizarre and disturbing behavior on the part of the state’s elected officials. But even with our high level of cynicism, the unfolding drama over redistricting has us shaking our heads at the stratospheric levels of foolishness, hypocrisy, and dishonesty.
As for foolishness, we wonder if Gov. Newsom has really thought this through. He is clearly staking his entire reputation on being the “anti-Trump” in preparation for a near certain presidential run. (Is there any other explanation for his recent sojourn to South Carolina?) But taking on California’s independent redistricting commission as the centerpiece of his political strategy could go sidewise very quickly.
First, the polling is hardly in his favor. Although he recently touted a poll showing support at 57%, that is contrary to a Politico poll indicating that voters prefer keeping the current independent line-drawing panel. That poll revealed that just 36% of registered voters backed returning redistricting authority to state lawmakers.
Second, the opposition to Gavin’s proposal will be extraordinarily well-funded. Nationally, Republicans are in a better financial position than Democrats and former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has pledged to raise $100,000,000 to fight the plan at the ballot box. Other big-money donors will likely include Charles Munger, Jr., who contributed $12 million to the 2010 campaign in support of adding congressional redistricting to the jurisdiction of the independent redistricting commission. As for big names in opposition to Newsom, add former “Governator” Arnold Schwarzenegger who has made it clear that he opposes any efforts, including those in both Texas and California to increase gerrymandering.
As for hypocrisy, the hands down winner has to be Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister whose reaction to a lawsuit filed by Republicans against the plan was jaw dropping: “Republicans filed this lawsuit to stop Californians from voting – that’s anti-American and anti-democratic.” But this is precisely what he, along with Newsom, did just last year when they petitioned a compliant California Supreme Court to remove a duly qualified initiative from the ballot, depriving Californians of the right to vote on the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act. That lawsuit compelled the Wall Street Journal to title a scathing editorial, “Democracy Dies in California.”
Finally, as for dishonesty, there are too many examples of misrepresentation about this political power grab to mention. For example, Gov. Newsom first claimed that the new district maps would be in the voter guide in order to be transparent to voters as to which district they lived in. The voter guide is mailed to the household of every registered voter. But now Democrats have backtracked saying only that the maps will be on a website.
More dissembling came from state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento, who lamely tried to argue that the new maps were consistent with the spirit of the independently drawn maps: “We’re crossing fewer city and county borders than ever” and “we are drawing more compact districts than ever.” But even the San Francisco Chronicle didn’t swallow this. “But by a number of measures of gerrymandering — or manipulating district boundaries to engineer partisan advantage — the Chronicle finds the new maps are decidedly less fair than the current ones.”
So, with this progressive effort hitting the trifecta of foolishness, hypocrisy, and dishonesty, how could there possibly be a silver lining? Simple. According to Politico, “Gov. Gavin Newsom’s gerrymandering play has effectively ended any possibility, however slim, that lawmakers would seriously consider a push by progressives to raise taxes before the Legislature adjourns next month.”
From the taxpayers’ perspective, that’s good news indeed.
Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.