A group of Republican state legislators — including Sen. Tony Strickland of Huntington Beach and Senate Republican leader Brian Jones of San Diego — gathered outside the Capitol in Sacramento Thursday to call Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Democratic-backed proposal to redraw congressional maps a violation of the California constitution.
As lawmakers prepared Thursday to vote on a newly proposed congressional map — a direct counter to legislative redistricting efforts in Texas to increase the number of House GOP seats there — California Republican legislators accused their Democratic counterparts in Sacramento of pushing a redistricting plan without proper oversight or notice to the public.
During Thursday morning’s news conference on the steps of the Capitol, Jones called the efforts an “attack on democracy” and “nothing less than rigging the election.”
The minority leader also accused Democrats of refusing to explain how the newly proposed maps were drawn.
“Gerrymandering by politicians is never OK, whether in California, Texas or anywhere else. Our state should be the model for fair elections and not the model for rigged elections,” said Jones. “This is not about good government. It’s about rigging the system to protect Democrat power.”
Proposition 50 — also known as the Election Rigging Response Act — is an attempt to negate the Texas legislature’s effort to flip five congressional districts to the GOP side through a redrawn map. That effort passed the Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday and is headed to the state’s Senate, where it’s expected to pass and move on to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
California Democrats, led by Newsom, have called the Texas plan gerrymandering, and California’s counter-push has drawn national notice.
The proposed California maps would similarly shift five seats to Democrats and override the state’s independent redistricting commission that is typically responsible for drawing district maps.
A two-thirds majority vote is required to place the proposal on the ballot, and if passed Thursday, the new maps would go before voters in a special election this November.
Newsom said in a statement earlier this week, “California and Californians have been uniquely targeted by the Trump Administration, and we are not going to sit idle while they command Texas and other states to rig the next election to keep power — pursuing more extreme and unpopular policies. This proposal would give Californians a choice to fight back — and bring much needed accountability and oversight to the Trump Administration.”
Republicans filed a lawsuit to block the redistricting plan, but the California Supreme Court rejected the legal challenge on Wednesday.
Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, who filed a citizens’ initiative earlier this week that called for a ban on elected office for state legislators who vote to approve the redistricting proposal, called the proposal a “seize of power from the citizens.”
“What’s happening behind us in this building today is unconstitutional, it is wrong, it is illegal. It is also corrupt,” DeMaio said during Thursday’s gathering outside the Capitol.
Strickland, who was one of several California GOP lawmakers who filed the emergency petition this week challenging the proposal, reiterated an argument in the Republicans’ legal filings that a 30-day public review period is required.
He said the new district lines were “drawn behind closed doors” and would lead to predetermined elections down the line.
“That means your voice won’t matter in California when it comes to congressional elections,” Strickland said.