Will Cost $200 Million While Facing Legal Hurdles

(Editor’s Note: To read Aug 14 CaliRed News article on “Newsom Calls Special Nov. 4 Election to Eliminate GOP CA Congressional Seats: Redistricting Drive Faces Political and Legal Hurdles”.)

CALIRED NEWS–Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom wishing to be the national challenger to President Donald J. Trump championed a gerrymandering measure through the State Legislature Thursday, Aug. 21 (the Assembly voted 57 to 20 and the Senate voted 30-8) that eliminates four Republican Congressional California seats and will now go to the voters in a special Nov. 4 election that will cost California taxpayers $200 million and still face legal hurdles.

The measure will appear on the ballot as Proposition 50 despite the fact that California voters in 2010 backed an “independent” redistricting commission for congressional districts–not the State Legislature–and only at the beginning of each decade based on U.S Census data.

The four impacted California Congressman are:

• Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-1 (Redding and Northeast CA)
• Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-3 (Northern Los Angeles County)
• Rep Ken Calvert, R-41 (Inland Empire and Western Riverside County)
• Rep. Darrell Issa, R-48 (Riverside and San Diego Counties).

If Democrats win these new gerrymandered districts they will hold a 47-5 advantage over Republicans despite the fact that 40 percent of California voters chose to vote Republican in the last election in 2024. 

Each decade, the Census Bureau collects population data that it uses to divide up the 435 U.S. House seats proportionally among the 50 states. California and Texas, with the highest populations have the highest number of representatives of all states.

Gov. Newsom is pushing the measure that will revert back to “nonpartisan” map-drawing after the 2030 census. Ironically, the California Governor had previously backed the “nonpartisan” commission before. However, Newsom said his move was based on the Texas effort to redistrict.

Opponents to the governor’s measure stated that some California communities will be split into multiple congressional districts and that the plan was being pushed by some Democrats who had a reported personal interest in running for Congress.

Currently, the Democrats control the California Legislature with a super-majority that does not require any Republicans to vote with Democrats. The California State Supreme Court declined to take up the issue on a Wednesday challenge made by Republicans.

Some responses from the overwhelmed Republicans:

• Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-3, minority leader representing Butte, Glenn, Placer, Sutter, Tehama and Yuba Counties: “Someone has to show a better way.”
• Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo, R-33, representing Fresno, Kings, Tulare Counties: “We will defeat this, it will be in a courtroom or at the ballot box.”
• Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-75, representing San Diego County: “Redrawing the state’s congressional districts is both ‘Illegal and unconstitutional.’”
• State Senator Kelly Seyarto, R-32, representing Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties: “We don’t have all the fiscal information that we need to make this decision and we’re going to do it anyway.”

Other conservative states including Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, and Florida are considering similar actions while Democratic states such as Maryland and New York are considering map revisions as well.

Nine U.S. States have no Republican legislator. They include:

• Massachusetts: 9 seats (36 percent GOP registered)
• Connecticut: 5 seats (42 percent GOP registered)
• New Mexico: 3 seats (46 percent GOP registered)
• New Hampshire: 2 seats (48 percent GOP registered)
• Maine: 2 seats (46 percent GOP registered)
• Rhode Island: 2 seats (42 percent GOP registered)
• Hawaii: 2 seats ( 38 percent GOP registered)
• Delaware: 1 seat ( 42 percent GOP registered)
• Vermont: 1 seat (32 percent GOP registered)

State law requires election officials to mail a ballot to every voter starting 29 days before the election and to military and overseas voters 45 days before, which means the ballot must be ready by September. 

Charles Munger, Jr., a longtime Republican who spent more than $12 million on the campaign to pass independent redistricting, said he intends to do the same against Proposition 50.  

“Citizens, not politicians or partisan party insiders, should not only hold the power to the ballot box but also the power to draw the lines,” Amy Thoma Tan, a spokesperson for Munger’s campaign committee said in a statement. The National Republican Congressional Committee said in a statement that it was prepared to “fight Gavin Newsom’s illegal power grab in the courts and at the ballot box.”

Republicans who have filed a lawsuit and called for a federal investigation into the plan promised to keep fighting it.

Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama has voiced support for Proposition 50. Currently, Gov. Newsom has raised $6.2 million in the last seven days from 200,000 donors, a spokesperson for his redistricting campaign. Proposition 50 may require an amendment to California’s state Constitution to override the independent commission that’s currently responsible for the state’s redistricting process. California has a deficit of $20 billion.

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CaliRed News is a column posted on Making California Red by the 2026 elections through reaching Gen Z (ages 13-28), Hispanics, and Christians with biblical traditional values and their pastors. CaiRed News reports on political, business, community, nonprofit, and church news.

Mike Hernandez is co-founder of the Citizens Journal–Ventura County’s online news service and writes for Citizens Journal and Mountain Top Media. He is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor, writer of “CaliRed News” and “Prayer Over News Daily” and edits the weekly “Stories Speak Volumes” and other columns. Mr. Hernandez mentors citizen journalists/podcasters and can be contacted here.

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