California voters oppose Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) plan to redraw congressional districts and gerrymander in favor of Democrats, rather than preserving the existing “independent” commission that draws district maps.
Last week, Newsom announced that he will seek a special election to approve a new partisan map, approved by the Democrat-dominated legislature, that will eliminate at least four of the nine Republican-held seats.
However, a poll of 1,445 registered voters in California by the Citrin Center and Possibility Lab at UC Berkeley and Politico revealed that 64% favor the current system, versus just 36% who want Newsom’s plan.
Politico reported:
By nearly a two-to-one margin, voters prefer keeping an independent line-drawing panel to determine the state’s House seats, the latest POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab survey found. Just 36 percent of respondents back returning congressional redistricting authority to state lawmakers.
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California Democrats have also promised not to do away with the state’s independent redistricting commission entirely. Instead, they plan to ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would put new maps approved by the Legislature in effect for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 election cycles, according to legislative sources familiar with the draft measure. The independent panel would then resume its role as the state’s line-drawer after the 2030 census.
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The independent commission’s popularity has grown over time. Californians narrowly approved the creation of an independent panel in 2008, taking the power to draw the boundaries of legislative districts away from lawmakers and giving it to a citizen commission.
A loss by Newsom — especially at the ballot box, but possibly in the courts — could dent his prospects as a Democratic Party presidential nominee. His gerrymandering effort seems aimed at a national audience.
ProPublica revealed in 2011 that Democrats already game the “independent” commission to favor their own partisan interests, using front groups to pose as genuine residents during the process of canvassing opinions.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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