When I first read about Governor Newsom’s plan to “redistrict” California’s Congressional districts to counter the move in Texas to change its Congressional district lines, I thought his plan to be flawed. I don’t know anything about the rules in Texas regarding the redistricting process there, but California supposedly has a “bipartisan, independent” redistricting commission. Neither the Governor nor the Legislature is supposed to have the power to draw district lines.
Then, the Democrat Attorney General, Rob Bonta, rendered an opinion saying the Legislature could override the redistricting commission, and propose its own plan, submit that plan to the voters, and work to counter the Texas redistricting. Article XXI of the California Constitution directly contradicts the Attorney General’s legal opinion. Attorney General Bonta is not driven by the law, but rather the partisan politics that both he and Governor Newsom have pursued for years here in California. Article XXI says, rather clearly, the commission draws the districts once a decade, and that’s it. (section 1 of Article XXI)
Texas is redistricting its Congressional districts because a case was filed in federal court by a bunch of leftists claiming that Texas violated federal law by discriminating against “voters of color” when it drew its districts in 2021 (that fact is overlooked by the media when it reports on the issue). California faces no such legal challenge. There is no reason to redraw California’s maps, unless that reason is simply to increase the number of Democrat members of Congress. The fact is the leftists in Texas figured out they screwed up with their lawsuit, and now they are trying to cover up that screw up by claiming the Texas Legislature is taking up the redistricting for “purely partisan” reasons. Newsom claims California is entitled to redistrict to counter the “partisan” moves of the Texas Legislature. No, its not, unless it gets sued for violating the voting rights act as well.
I have long believed that the redistricting commission is little more than a rubber stamp in place to keep the Democrats in power. The bozos who proposed the commission thought they were countering the Democrats’ gerrymandering that have been occurring since 1961, but they were wrong. The Democrats’ control of the Secretary of State’s office, which staffs the commission, makes sure they control the information provided to the commissioners, and, by doing so, makes sure that the maps ultimately approved favor Democrats. California’s maps are a “behind the scenes” gerrymander. Now Democrat controlled bureaucrats draw the state’s maps instead of politicians.
Either Newsom and Bonta can’t draw the districts (as the California Constitution says) which makes their national posturing a public relations ploy, driven by Newsom’s presidential ambitions, or their effort is direct violation of the Constitution. During the COVID days, Newsom proved himself to be comfortable with being a dictator, violating the California Constitution and state law, as well as circumventing the legislature on a regular basis. Now he is demonstrating those same authoritarian predilections when it comes to purely partisan issues, like redistricting. You will never hear the mainstream media say these things. Most reporters think the Democrats should violate the Constitution to counter Republicans. Most of the mainstream media are simply propaganda hacks for politicians like Newsom. There is no accountability, either in the government, the law, or the media to check Newsom and his unbridled exercise of power.
We may have dictators in this country, exercising Hitlerian type power, but they are not in the White House.