Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is reportedly planning to challenge current California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) plan to redraw the state’s congressional map, according to a recent report.
Daniel Ketchell, a spokesperson for Schwarzenegger, told Politico that the actor feels that “it’s truly evil for politicians to take power from people,” and that he has called “gerrymandering evil.” While in office, Schwarzenegger was “behind the pair of constitutional amendments” that took the “authority for drawing legislative districts” away from lawmakers and gave it to an “independent commission.”
“He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that,” Ketchell told the outlet. “He thinks it’s truly evil for politicians to take power from people. He’s opposed to what Texas is doing, and he’s opposed to the idea that California would race to the bottom to do the same thing.”
Per the outlet, Newsom is planning to “redraw California’s U.S. House maps before the midterm elections to offset a similar Republican-led effort unfolding in Texas”:
Now, the fight has returned to his home state, as Newsom aims to redraw California’s U.S. House maps before the midterm elections to offset a similar Republican-led effort unfolding in Texas. Since such a move would undo the constitutional language added by the Schwarzenegger amendments, it would require voter approval. Newsom said today he is “very” confident he can secure the two-thirds legislative supermajority he would need to put the question on a November special-election ballot.
Schwarzenegger is preparing to take a starring role in a “No” campaign, reuniting many of the forces that came together in 2008 to pass Prop 11 (which created the commission for California legislative maps) and in 2010 for Prop 20 (which extended its authority to congressional maps). Several of the leading outside groups that gave good-government ballast to the earlier efforts —including the League of Women Voters and California Common Cause — are challenging Newsom’s proposal.
On Monday, Newsom announced that Democrats were planning to redraw the state’s congressional map, warning that if Texas Republicans did not move forward with a proposed redrawn map of the congressional districts, there would “be no cause” to move forward with the plan to redraw California’s congressional map, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s cause and effect, triggered on the basis of what occurs or doesn’t occur in Texas,” Newsom explained. “I hope they do the right thing, and if they do, then there’ll be no cause for us to have to move forward.”
Newsom’s plan to redraw California’s congressional map comes as Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives fled the state to prevent their Republican colleagues from holding a vote on a redrawn map of the congressional district.
In a press release, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) explained that he had directed the Texas Rangers “to investigate delinquent Texas House Democrats” who fled the state to break quorum on “potential violations of Texas law, including bribery.”
