California residents tuning into a 49ers game or loading up a YouTube video over the past month have been met with a dire, if familiar, message: Democracy is under attack, and it’s up to you, dear voter, to save it this November.
But exactly who is attacking democracy, and how the voter is supposed to save it, depends on who is paying for the ads.
“Save democracy in all 50 states,” one ad from the “Yes on 50” team implores.
“Protect your vote and democracy,” an ad from the “No on Prop 50” team says.
The unexpected — and mildly confusing — off-year ad war was set off by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to counter the Republican-led effort in Texas to draw new congressional maps to benefit Republicans with a California redistricting effort to benefit Democrats. Each party intends to pick up five seats when the dust settles.
In order for Newsom and California Democrats to be able to draw new maps, however, voters in the state must decide whether to temporarily remove the state’s independent commission that regularly draws maps and instead hand over that power to Democrats in the State Legislature, via a measure known as Proposition 50.
And, in a particularly 2025 twist, the Republicans and others seeking to thwart Newsom’s efforts have been borrowing language most commonly used by Democrats ever since Trump rose to power in 2016 — language that warns that representative democracy is at stake.
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The post Republicans Try Democrats’ Playbook to Stop California Redistricting appeared first on New York Times.
