Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Visalia Crash Sends Car Into Marie Callender’s After Driver Runs Red Light

1 day ago

Gifford Fire Expands to 83,933 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties

1 day ago

S&P 500 and Nasdaq Lifted by Earnings, Fed Hopes

1 day ago

Israeli Military Chief Opposes Gaza War Expansion, Raising Pressure on Netanyahu

1 day ago

Israel Considers Full Gaza Takeover as More Die of Hunger

2 days ago

US to Initially Impose ‘Small Tariff’ on Pharma Imports, Trump Says

2 days ago

Cruz Criticizes Hochul for Wearing Headscarf at Slain Officer’s Funeral

2 days ago

Trump Says Banks Discriminate Against His Supporters While White House Prepares Order

2 days ago
Democracy Be Damned: Texas and California Plot Dueling Gerrymanders
Portrait of CalMatters Columnist Dan Walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 2 hours ago on
August 7, 2025

"There’s nothing funny about trampling — in the lust for partisan political power — the quaintly democratic notion that congressional districts should fairly represent the characteristics and values of their constituents," writes Dan Walters. (GV Wire Composite)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Under pressure from President Donald Trump, Texas’ dominant Republicans are attempting to redraw the state’s congressional districts and thus increase the number of GOP-held seats after the midterms.

Portrait of CalMatters Columnist Dan Walters

By

CalMatters

Opinion

Republicans have a paper-thin majority in the House of Representative. Trump obviously fears that Democrats could win control next year and he wants mid-decade redistricting to make congressional regime change less likely.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders want to counter the nakedly partisan effort in Texas by gerrymandering California’s congressional districts to neutralize whatever Texas does. It’s faintly reminiscent of the Spy vs. Spy comic strip in MAD Magazine that baby boomers might recall, or perhaps the classic Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons.

However, there’s nothing funny about trampling — in the lust for partisan political power — the quaintly democratic notion that congressional districts should fairly represent the characteristics and values of their constituents.

Newsom wants the Legislature to place a measure on the November ballot that would set aside — temporarily, he says — the state’s constitutional requirement that redistricting be done once a decade by an independent commission.

“It’s cause and effect, triggered on the basis of what occurs or doesn’t occur in Texas,” Newsom said this week. “I hope they do the right thing, and if they do, then there’ll be no cause for us to have to move forward.”

California’s Tortured History of Redistricting

However it plays out, it’s another chapter in the tortured history of redistricting in California.

After the 1970 census, Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan and Democratic legislative leaders deadlocked on redistricting and the state Supreme Court intervened, creating its own mechanism to draw new maps.

A decade later, after the 1980 census, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, legislative leaders such as Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, and Phil Burton, leader of the state’s congressional delegation, drew very weird-looking, politically lopsided districts — one of which Burton described as “my contribution to modern art.”

Republicans persuaded voters to reject the maps via referendum. However, the state Supreme Court decreed that the challenged maps be used for the 1982 election anyway. After that election, Brown and legislators simply adopted slightly changed versions.

Republicans tried again to overturn the Democrats’ maps via ballot initiative but the state Supreme Court canceled it, declaring that the state constitution limited redistricting to one each decade. Speaker Brown publicly thanked “Sister Rose and the Supremes,” referring to Chief Justice Rose Bird, one of several reasons Bird was ousted by voters a few years later.

After 1990 census, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and Democratic legislators once again stalemated and once again the Supreme Court stepped in. However, after the 2000 census, although Democrat Gray Davis was governor, leaders of both parties forged a bipartisan gerrymander, freezing the numerical status quo in the Legislature and the congressional delegation.

After Davis was recalled, successor Arnold Schwarzenegger mounted a campaign to reform redistricting, backed by Charles Munger Jr., a very wealthy physicist and son of the famous businessman and investor Charlie Munger. Voters passed their 2008 initiative to create an independent commission for legislative seats and a 2010 measure to extend its authority to congressional districts despite opposition from both parties.

The commission drew maps after the 2010 and 2020 censuses and both plans helped Democrats achieve supermajorities in legislative houses and the congressional delegation — thanks largely to demographic trends and declining GOP voter registration.

Could the Independent Commission Vanish?

Today, Republicans hold just nine of the state’s 53 congressional seats and Newsom is ready to cut that in half. He says that the revised districts would be in effect until the commission is revived after the 2030 census.

However, due its almost nonexistent population growth, California could lose as many as four seats after the 2030 census. Having seized more power over redistricting, would Democrats really be willing to return to the commission system they once despised?

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Feeling Ghoulish? Fresno Haunted House Puts Out Call for Actors

DON'T MISS

She Survived a 9-Story Fall After a Russian Missile Hit Her Building

DON'T MISS

FBI to Track Down Texas Democrats Who Fled Over Redistrict Vote, US Senator Says

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Order Requiring Universities Disclose Admissions Data on Race

DON'T MISS

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Jennifer Ayers Thompson

DON'T MISS

Body Recovered from California Aqueduct in Kings County, Authorities Say

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Authorities Say Friends Staged Fake Robbery Shooting

DON'T MISS

Democracy Be Damned: Texas and California Plot Dueling Gerrymanders

DON'T MISS

Gifford Fire Nears 100,000 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties; Injuries Reported

DON'T MISS

Nearly 12,000 Children Under Five in Gaza Have Acute Malnutrition, Says WHO

UP NEXT

She Survived a 9-Story Fall After a Russian Missile Hit Her Building

UP NEXT

FBI to Track Down Texas Democrats Who Fled Over Redistrict Vote, US Senator Says

UP NEXT

Trump to Sign Order Requiring Universities Disclose Admissions Data on Race

UP NEXT

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Jennifer Ayers Thompson

UP NEXT

Body Recovered from California Aqueduct in Kings County, Authorities Say

UP NEXT

Fresno County Authorities Say Friends Staged Fake Robbery Shooting

UP NEXT

Democracy Be Damned: Texas and California Plot Dueling Gerrymanders

UP NEXT

Gifford Fire Nears 100,000 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties; Injuries Reported

UP NEXT

Nearly 12,000 Children Under Five in Gaza Have Acute Malnutrition, Says WHO

UP NEXT

Trump to Sign Order Opening Way for Alternative Assets in 401(K)S, Official Says

Trump to Sign Order Requiring Universities Disclose Admissions Data on Race

55 minutes ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Jennifer Ayers Thompson

58 minutes ago

Body Recovered from California Aqueduct in Kings County, Authorities Say

2 hours ago

Fresno County Authorities Say Friends Staged Fake Robbery Shooting

2 hours ago

Democracy Be Damned: Texas and California Plot Dueling Gerrymanders

2 hours ago

Gifford Fire Nears 100,000 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties; Injuries Reported

2 hours ago

Nearly 12,000 Children Under Five in Gaza Have Acute Malnutrition, Says WHO

2 hours ago

Trump to Sign Order Opening Way for Alternative Assets in 401(K)S, Official Says

3 hours ago

Trump Calls on ‘Highly Conflicted’ Intel CEO to Resign Over China Ties

3 hours ago

Fresno Man Who Drugged and Sexually Abused Minors Sentenced to 53 Years to Life

17 hours ago

Feeling Ghoulish? Fresno Haunted House Puts Out Call for Actors

If you’re more into giving scares than receiving them, a role in Fresno’s new Halloween haunted house may be for you. Fresno Fri...

18 minutes ago

Fresno Fright Nights
18 minutes ago

Feeling Ghoulish? Fresno Haunted House Puts Out Call for Actors

A view inside one of the apartments in the residential building that was partly destroyed by a Russian missile the night of July 31 in Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 4, 2025. Veronika Osintseva went to sleep in her bed on the ninth floor of an apartment building in Kyiv and woke up on a pile of rubble outside. She saw her leg covered in blood and cried out for help, thinking only of the pain, she would later say, and not how she had survived. (Oksana Parafeniuk/The New York Times)
24 minutes ago

She Survived a 9-Story Fall After a Russian Missile Hit Her Building

Texas Senators attend a redistricting hearing for invited guests after Democratic lawmakers left the state to deny Republicans the quorum needed to redraw the state's 38 congressional districts, at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, U.S. August 6, 2025. (Reuters File)
48 minutes ago

FBI to Track Down Texas Democrats Who Fled Over Redistrict Vote, US Senator Says

People walk on campus at Columbia University in New York City, U.S., April 8, 2025. (Reuters File)
55 minutes ago

Trump to Sign Order Requiring Universities Disclose Admissions Data on Race

Jennifer Ayers Thompson is Valley Crime Stoppers' Most Wanted Person of the Day for August 7, 2025. (Valley Crimes Stoppers)
58 minutes ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Jennifer Ayers Thompson

A 19-year-old Hanford resident is in stable condition after being shot in the Santa Rosa Rancheria early Thursday, and a juvenile male suspect, wanted for a prior homicide, was arrested with a loaded handgun. (Kings County SO)
2 hours ago

Body Recovered from California Aqueduct in Kings County, Authorities Say

Fresno County authorities say two 19-year-old friends staged a shooting and falsely reported it as a robbery attempt. (Fresno County SO)
2 hours ago

Fresno County Authorities Say Friends Staged Fake Robbery Shooting

Congressional lines California Texas gerrymander
2 hours ago

Democracy Be Damned: Texas and California Plot Dueling Gerrymanders

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend