This article is co-published with Capital & Main, a non-profit publication based in California reporting on topics like economics, the environment, and politics.
Californians have until Nov. 4 to vote on Proposition 50, a ballot measure led by Gov. Gavin Newsom that seeks to redraw the state’s congressional maps to help Democrats and cancel out similar Republican-led efforts in other states.
President Donald Trump has urged Republican lawmakers across the country to create congressional maps that will benefit their party in next year’s midterm elections. Texas officials have already taken up Trump’s request, redrawing their districts to provide House Republicans with an additional five seats. Missouri has also approved a new congressional map designed to give Republicans another House seat.
In California, mid-decade redistricting has been illegal since voters established an independent redistricting commission in 2008, transferring the power to redraw district lines from politicians to members of the public. But now, even some advocates of that commission are supporting Prop. 50, or the Election Rigging Response Act, which would temporarily hand back redistricting to lawmakers and net California Democrats an additional five House seats that are currently held by Republicans.
Supporters of the ballot initiative like longtime civil rights activist and former vice presidential candidate Melina Abdullah claim the move is necessary to fight back against Trump’s efforts to undermine democracy.
“Prop. 50 gets to the immediacy of the crisis that we’re facing, saying that if he’s going to engage in these kinds of unscrupulous, unjust, undemocratic efforts, that the people have to say no, we are going to figure out how to survive,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah, who is now part of the “Yes on 50” campaign, has researched the impacts of California’s redistricting commission and contributed to an analysis of the project that was published by the League of Women Voters. She said that in large part, the commission has been successful in empowering the people over politicians.
That’s partly why the “No on 50” campaign claims the ballot initiative “puts politicians in charge of drawing congressional districts, letting them rig the system to guarantee re-election and punish political opponents.”
A number of prominent California Republicans have come out against the ballot initiative, including former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Congressman Kevin McCarthy. The opposition has also largely been funded by Republicans, including Charles T. Munger Jr., physicist and son of the late billionaire vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, who has donated almost $33 million to the cause, according to state campaign finance records. Munger was also instrumental in supporting the initial formation and expansion of the redistricting commission.
Proponents of Prop. 50 have raised more than twice as much as its opponents, state records show. Notable donors in support of the ballot initiative include left-wing mega-donor George Soros’ Fund for Policy Reform and the House Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats.
Critics of the ballot measure say it would strip the public of the ability to control redistricting. But supporters point out that the new congressional maps would last only until 2030, at which time the independent redistricting commission would regain power of drawing the state’s districts.
