Legislators are making fast work on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting proposal this week — but not without some procedural hiccups led by Republicans who oppose the effort.
Elections committees in both the state Assembly and Senate on Tuesday, Aug. 19, heard the legislation that would call a special election in November over proposed new, partisan congressional maps.
The upper chamber’s hearing was relatively straightforward — albeit some Senate Republicans who are not members of the committee were upset they were not allowed to ask questions.
Meanwhile, on the Assembly side, sparks flew throughout Tuesday’s hearing, as the two GOP members of the lower chamber’s Elections Committee accused Democrats of rushing through the approval process and denying them adequate time to ask all their questions.
Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, proposed an amendment that would have stated that any member of the legislature who votes for ACA 8 shall not run for Congress in any of the proposed congressional districts. ACA 8 is the legislation that would authorize new, temporary congressional district maps that would only go into effect if other, Republican-led states adopt gerrymandered maps of their own.
“If everybody here is saying that they are doing this to protect democracy,” Tangipa said, the legislature should “make sure that they don’t have a vested interest.” He cited news reports that alleged Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire asked for a district to be drawn specifically for him to be able to win should he run for Congress.
But Democrats shot down his proposal, tabling consideration of the amendment.
Throughout the Assembly hearing on ACA 8, there were fiery exchanges between Democratic and Republican members on the committee, prompting the chair to call for order multiple times.
After more than half an hour of questions by Tangipa, Committee Chair Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, moved on to hear from other committee members.
Vice Chair Alexandra Macedo, R-Tulare, later criticized Pellerin, saying she was given less than five minutes to ask her questions — and had not gotten through all of them — before the committee voted along party lines to advance ACA 8.
Assemblymember Steve Bennett, D-Ventura, meanwhile, said Democrats prefer to play by long-established rules related to elections and the peaceful transfer of power. “But when autocrats change the rules and the norms that we are using to decide who has power, we can either fight back or we can potentially permanently lose the ability ever to fight back again in the future,” he said.
The Assembly committee on Tuesday also advanced SB 280, a bill calling for a statewide special election on Nov. 4 for Californians to vote to amend the state constitution to allow for the gerrymandered, temporary congressional maps.
The panel also held an informational hearing to discuss AB 604, specifying the boundaries of the maps.
The three Assembly hearings, combined, lasted several hours and stretched well into the late afternoon.
This week — the legislature’s first upon returning from summer recess — is expected to be a long one. Floor votes on the redistricting legislative package are scheduled to take place on Thursday, according to Democratic leadership’s schedule.
Earlier Tuesday, legislative Republicans asked the state’s Supreme Court to intervene and hit the brakes on the redistricting efforts in the statehouse. They alleged, in a court filing, that the legislation calling for a special election and establishing the new congressional maps needed to be published for 30 days before any action could be taken by the legislature.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s hearing on the same redistricting proposals only lasted a few hours.
Senate Republicans criticized the committee for not allowing non-committee members to sit and ask questions as well. Sen. Steven Choi, R-Irvine, was the only member of the minority party allowed to ask questions during the hearing since he is the committee’s vice chair.
“I’m extremely disappointed by the actions of my colleagues this morning. As the lone Republican on the committee, this should have been an opportunity to provide balance and accountability,” Choi said. “But instead of allowing open discussion, they chose to shut down dissenting voices, and by extension, the voices of Californians themselves. This is not how democracy is supposed to work.”
Jeanne Raya, a San Gabriel resident who served on the initial independent commission in 2010, touted their work then, saying it resulted in greater representation among women as well as AAPI, Black and Latino Californians.
Raya decried efforts in Texas to add five GOP-represented congressional seats at the behest of President Donald Trump, but she told senators she is also opposed to partisan redistricting efforts in California.
“I would celebrate replacing any congressional member who has forgotten his or her oath to serve their constituents and protect the Constitution,” said Raya, who noted she is a registered Democrat.
“But this can’t be at the expense of the California Constitution nor the California voters who mandated fair, nonpartisan redistricting. Does the threat by Texas Republicans call for a retaliatory strike? We witness daily the chaos and mistrust created by revenge politics in Washington,” Raya said. “That is not a model for the responsible government Californians deserve. That’s not a model for spending millions of dollars on a gamble that different congressional districts will produce the sought-after change.”
Sen. Monique Limon, D-Santa Barbara, said legislators have received “thousands” of messages of public feedback from the online portal that went up Friday, soliciting input on the proposed maps.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco said he submitted more than 12,000 petitions from Californians who oppose the redistricting proposal to both elections committees on Tuesday.
“Thousands of Californians have spoken, and their message is simple: Stop rigging, gerrymandering and disenfranchising,” Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, said. “Voters deserve to choose their leaders — not the other way around.”
But those who support the redistricting proposal called it a much-needed effort to counter what’s taking place in other, Republican-led states, in particular, Texas. Legislators and experts who testified during the committees said they preferred independent commissions drawing congressional boundary lines but viewed this effort as necessary to protect democracy.
“These are extreme attacks on our core democratic principles, and these attacks must be met with decisive action,” Sara Sadhwani, who serves on California’s independent commission, told senators.
“It brings me no joy to see the maps that we passed fairly by the commission to be tossed aside for this new set of maps,” she said. “The commission is an excellent process … but I do believe this is a necessary step in a much bigger battle to shore up free and fair elections in our nation.”
When asked about the cost of a special election, Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, who chairs the Senate’s election committee, said, “$200 million we believe is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the federal funding we’d get back that we are losing today,” a reference to the Trump administration’s spending policies.