CA Voters Approve New US House Map     11/05 06:09

   

   LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California voters approved new congressional district 
boundaries Tuesday, delivering a victory for Democrats in the state-by-state 
redistricting battle that will help determine which party wins control of the 
U.S. House in 2026 and, with it, the power to thwart or advance President 
Donald Trump's agenda.

   The approval of Proposition 50 gives Democrats a shot at winning as many as 
five additional seats, just enough to blunt Texas Republicans' move to redraw 
their own maps to pick up five GOP seats at Trump's urging. Texas' move and 
California's response have kicked off a flurry of redistricting efforts around 
the country, with Republican states appearing to have an edge. Deeply blue 
California is Democrats' best opportunity to make up seats.

   Midterm elections typically punish the party in the White House, and Trump 
is fighting to maintain his party's slim House majority. Republicans hold 219 
seats to Democrats' 213.

   Tuesday's results mark a political victory for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, 
who cast the measure as an essential tool to fight back against Trump and 
protect American democracy.

   Speaking to reporters in Sacramento, Newsom cast the California vote as part 
of a broader national rejection of Trump's policies that saw Democratic 
governors elevated in New Jersey and Virginia. But he warned the more 
consequential battle would come next year.

   If Democrats win the House majority, they can "end Donald Trump's presidency 
as we know it," Newsom said. "It is all on the line, a bright line, in 2026."

   Measure supported by Newsom and Obama

   California's Proposition 50 asked voters to suspend House maps drawn by an 
independent commission and replace them with rejiggered districts adopted by 
the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Those new districts would be in place 
for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.

   The recast districts aim to dilute Republican voters' power, in one case by 
uniting rural, conservative-leaning parts of far northern California with Marin 
County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold across the Golden Gate Bridge 
from San Francisco.

   The measure was spearheaded by Newsom, who threw the weight of his political 
operation behind it in a major test of his mettle ahead of a potential 2028 
presidential campaign. Former President Barack Obama urged voters to pass it as 
well.

   "Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election 
and wield unchecked power for two more years," Obama said in one ad. "You can 
stop Republicans in their tracks."

   Critics said two wrongs don't make a right. They urged Californians to 
reject the measure, even if they have misgivings about Trump's moves elsewhere.

   Among the most prominent critics was Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star 
and former Republican governor who pushed for the creation of the independent 
commission, which voters approved in 2008 and 2010. It makes no sense to fight 
Trump by becoming him, Schwarzenegger said in September, arguing that the 
proposal would "take the power away from the people."

   "I don't want Newsom to have control," said Rebecca Fleshman, a 63-year-old 
retired medical assistant from Southern California, who voted against the 
measure. "I don't want the state to be blue. I want it to be red."

   A lopsided campaign foreshadowed the vote

   After an early burst of TV advertising, opponents of the plan struggled to 
raise cash in a state with some of the nation's most expensive media markets.

   The campaign followed an unusual trajectory. A handful of Republican 
congressmen who will see their districts dramatically reshaped -- and their 
jobs endangered -- mostly stayed away from the campaign spotlight. With 
opponents short on cash, Newsom and his supporters dominated TV screens in the 
critical closing weeks.

   Total spending on broadcast and cable ads topped $100 million, with more 
than two-thirds of it coming from supporters. Newsom told people to stop 
donating in the race's final weeks.

   The GOP congressmen -- Reps. Ken Calvert, Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley, David 
Valadao and Doug LaMalfa -- will see right-leaning voters reduced and 
left-leaning voters boosted in their respective districts in a shift that would 
make it likely a Democratic candidate would prevail in each race.

   Issa issued a defiant statement, saying: "I'm not going anywhere. I'll 
continue to represent the people of California regardless of their party or 
where they live."

   Calvert said Newsom engineered a "power grab" while housing costs, gas 
prices and taxes continue to strain family budgets. "I am determined to keep 
fighting for the families I represent," he said in an email.

   AP poll finds voters motivated by political reasons

   Proposition 50 won a swift and decisive victory, as the AP declared a winner 
when polls closed statewide. Early returns were strongly in favor of the 
measure, as were preliminary results from the AP Voter Poll, an expansive 
survey of more than 4,000 voters in California.

   Roughly 7 in 10 California voters said party control of Congress was "very 
important" to them, and those voters overwhelmingly supported the measure, 
according to the AP Voter Poll.

   About 8 in 10 California voters who supported the ballot measure said it was 
necessary to counter the changes made by Republicans in other states, while 
only about 2 in 10 said they supported it because it was the best way to draw 
maps, AP Voter Poll found.

   Trump, who overwhelmingly lost California in his three presidential 
campaigns, largely stayed out of the fray. A week before the election, he urged 
voters in a social media post not to vote early or by mail -- messaging that 
conflicted with that of top Republicans in the state who urged people to get 
their ballots in as soon as possible.

   In a post Tuesday on his social media platform, the president called the 
state's voting process "RIGGED" and warned that it was "under very serious 
legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!" Secretary of State Shirley Weber called 
that "another baseless claim."

   The national House map is in flux

   Congressional district boundaries are typically redrawn every 10 years to 
reflect population shifts documented in the census. Mid-decade redistricting is 
unusual, absent a court order finding fault with the maps in place.

   Beyond Texas, Republicans expect to gain one seat each from new maps in 
Missouri and North Carolina, and potentially two more in Ohio. Five other 
GOP-led states are also considering new maps: Florida, Indiana, Kansas, 
Louisiana and Nebraska.

   On the Democratic side, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Virginia 
have proposals to redraw maps, but major hurdles remain.

   A court has ordered new boundaries be drawn in Utah, where all four House 
districts are represented by Republicans, but it remains to be seen if the 
state will approve a map that makes any of them winnable for Democrats.

   Siddhartha Deb, 52, has lived in the U.S. since he was 7 years old but he 
just became a citizen Tuesday. Immediately afterward he registered to vote at 
San Francisco City Hall and cast his ballot in favor of Newsom's measure.

   "I don't like the way the Republican Party is basically trying to rig 
elections by gerrymandering," Deb said. "And this is the only way, to fight 
fire with fire."