California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wants to scrap California’s nominally independent redistricting process in favor of a partisan gerrymander for Congress, following in the footsteps of Illinois Gov. J.B. Prizker (D).
Newsom has attacked Texas for its effort to redraw congressional several districts — though it is doing so at the urging of the U.S. Department of Justice, which says that current districts are unconstitutional.
Anticipating that the new Texas district map could add congressional seats for Republicans, Newsom has proposed retaliating by redrawing California’s map to eliminate the few Republicans left representing the state.
His reversal on independent redistricting recalls Gov. Pritzker’s broken promises, after the Illinois governor violated a pledge to seek independent redistricting, and gerrymandered districts to favor Democrats instead.
(Pritzker is also talking about retaliating against Texas by redistricting again to favor Democrats in Illinois.)
The effort is part of Newsom’s attempt to act as the Democratic Party standard-bearer, with an eye on the presidential election in 2028. But his proposal is being criticized by state legislators from his own party:
“Democrats have stood for fair and free elections against gerrymandering and a universal suffrage,” said Assemblymember Alex Lee, D-Milpitas. “It is a betrayal of the party platform… I understand we want to recapture the House, but it frustrates me that we would rather cheat on the elections.”
Lee said he understands his party’s desire to regain Congressional power in order to thwart Trump’s agenda, but ultimately is against the precedent it would set for California.
“I think that’s one thing that turns off a lot of people, and that’s not what we want,” he said. “There are lots of ways which we should resist the federal government. I don’t believe cheating the elections and, making elections a sham is the right way to go.”
Ironically, California’s supposedly independent redistricting commission is effectively controlled by Democrats, who gamed the system when it was introduced and eliminated several Republican-held seats.
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.
