Gov. Newsom has proposed mid-decade redistricting to redraw California’s congressional lines—not to serve the people, but to play political revenge games with Texas. This is gerrymandering, plain and simple. And a dangerous step backward.
Californians fought hard to end the days of shady, backroom map deals. In 2008, we passed Proposition 11 to create the Citizens Redistricting Commission, an independent body that puts people over politics when drawing district lines. That system works. It’s considered the national gold standard. Redistricting belongs to the voters—not to the governor or any political party.
Now, all that progress is under threat. Mid-decade redistricting will destabilize elections, confuse voters, and undermine public trust in democracy.
The League of Women Voters was a proponent of Proposition 11 and continues to advocate for fair redistricting throughout California.
San Luis Obispo County fought its own hard-won battle and established an independent citizens redistricting commission to draw county electoral maps in 2024.
Tell the governor California is not Texas. We cannot go backward. Tell him to abandon this shortsighted, undemocratic effort.
Email him at www.gov.ca.gov/contact or call (916) 445-2841.
Janice Langley
Joanne Schultz
Wendy Brown
leadership team
League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County
This article appears in Education Today 2025.
I think the time has long past where saying “It’s not fair!” will have any effect on an administration that has abandoned any pretenses of democracy.
The days of democrats sitting back and doing nothing except chanting, “When they go low, we go high,” are over. Take a good look at where that’s gotten us. We are now having to deal with a renegade administration that cares nothing about how low they go. It’s time to say, “When they go low, we go lower.” It certainly couldn’t be worse than the nothing democrats are currently doing.
Nice argument. Take the high road! Context was conveniently omitted here, however. That said, while I don’t care for the crowd favorite “they did it first” argument either, at this point I’m much more a fan of keeping our democracy than feeling good about myself without one.
Since any change to redistricting will have to be put on the ballot for the voters to approve, doesn’t that make it a democratic process by definition?
M Silvinske: Do you really think that the electoral misfortunes of the Democrats are the result of you having “played too nice”? If you look back at the last four years, the Democrats have been unrelenting in their shrill attacks on Trump and conservatives, and have engaged in stunts like trying to disqualify Trump from the ballots and criminally prosecuting him, all things which have violated political norms. Some pretty bare-knuckle stuff. How’d it work out for you? The voters have noticed, and were not favorably impressed. You might want to consider a Plan B.