Pelosi, California Democrats Fight Redistricting Reform Measure
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) and her fellow Congressional Democrats from California are putting their financial muscle behind a proposed Golden State ballot measure to scrap the state’s redistricting reform.
Californians in 2008 voted to take the job of redistricting for state legislative districts away from the Legislature and governor and put it in the hands of a citizens redistricting commission.
But according to the Los Angeles Times, a UCLA law professor wants to put a new question on the ballot this November to rescind the redistricting commission. And the Times reported that Pelosi and a dozen other California Members have collectively just contributed $140,000 to the law professor’s efforts. Former state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D), who is expected to run for the seat of retiring Rep. Diane Watson (D), also chipped in $20,000.
The measure that California voters approved in 2008 did not address Congressional redistricting — and members of the delegation did not actively oppose it. As of now, the next Congressional map following this year’s census is slated to be drawn by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the governor, who could be a Democrat or a Republican.
But some reform groups in the state are now collecting petition signatures to put another redistricting measure on the ballot this fall to change the Congressional redistricting system. So the Times posits that Pelosi and her colleagues are supporting the attempts to scrap the legislative redistricting commission in part to muddy the issue in voters’ minds come fall, assuming both questions are on the ballot in the fall.
Through the years, Pelosi and Congressional Democrats from the Golden State have vehemently opposed attempts to take the remapping of House districts away from their fellow politicians.