A special report on redistricting

We’re looking forward to the voters doing something the voters have never been tasked to do in any time in US history. I firmly believe that politicians shouldn’t pick their lines. Redistrict divide, *** battle playing out in the nation’s two largest states. We have got to meet fire with fire. He’s posturing for the presidency and doing nothing more than that. He’s all talk and no action. Texas makes *** power grab. And the Golden State strikes back tonight. What could change for California voters? Experts walk us through the maps. Plus we’re joined by Republican congressman Kevin Kiley. And Democratic Congressman Ay Barra, what they say about Governor Newsom’s sweeping plan to flip 5 seats and the legal hurdles ahead. We’re asking the California Supreme Court to intervene. Then later we’re joined by Secretary of State Shirley Weber with what this all means for voters. Is this an effort that you’re on board with? Tonight on California Politics 360. Welcome and thank you for joining us tonight on California Politics 360. We’re talking redistricting and what this all means for Californians. Coming up *** little bit later in the show, we’ll hear from lawmakers and political analysts about the new proposed districts, where those lines fall, and what voters need to know before they make their decision in just two months. But first we start with KCRA3’s Edie Lambert and *** look at how this all started. Here in California, the process is not supposed to be this political. Voters approved *** special commission to take lawmakers out of it. So now, as we may be on the verge of that changing, here’s *** look at how we got to this point. The Northeast and Midwest. States must redraw their political boundaries every 10 years after the census. It’s *** notoriously political process using census numbers to draw new political districts. When California lawmakers were in charge of that, it led to some odd looking maps like this one in 1990. Lo and behold, his new district meanders here and there and somehow. Barely takes in his Sacramento home. Districts like that led then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to argue politicians couldn’t be trusted to draw their own districts. They did not represent the people of California. They represented themselves. Californians agreed, passing the voters First Act in 2008. It created the Citizens Redistricting Commission, the system we have now. The commission is made up of 14 members from various ethnic backgrounds and different parts of the state. There are 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and 4 declined estates. When they drew this congressional map in 2021, their goal was to keep similar communities together to protect their voting power. Normally this map wouldn’t change until 2031. But Texas may have gaveled in *** new era for redistricting. On July 15, President Donald Trump confirmed he asked the Texas legislature to redraw their congressional maps, aiming to keep Republican control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. I know they say don’t mess with Texas. Don’t mess with the great Golden State. Governor Gavin Newsom responded quickly, saying he opposed the blatantly political move in Texas, but he was willing to do the same thing in California to send 5 more Democrats to Congress if Texas added 5 Republicans. We have got to meet fire with fire, but Governor Newsom has the harder path. Texas Republicans passed their plan about *** month after President Trump asked for it, despite Democratic opposition. In California, the state constitution prohibits lawmakers from drawing maps, so *** ballot measure could temporarily transfer that power. On August 18th, California Democrats released their proposed map and introduced the bills for *** November 4th special election. We are in an emergency, and this is our emergency response. On August 21, 4 days after the bills were introduced, lawmakers passed them. Voters will decide whether to use the new map for the next three congressional elections, and shortly after the governor signed the bills, he launched straight into the campaign. We’re responding to what occurred in Texas. We’re neutralizing what occurred and we’re giving the American people *** fair chance. On Monday, California Republican lawmakers announced they filed an emergency petition with the California Supreme Court aiming to block the special election. The lawsuit claims the legislature violated the state constitution and redistricting laws by preparing those congressional maps. Joining us now is Andrew Acosta, *** Sacramento-based Democratic political consultant. He’s here to help us take *** closer look at these proposed maps as we can see just generally, I mean, we know the effort is to target 5 Republicans across the state. But if we could bring up Sacramento, we want to zoom in on how the Sacramento region is going to be impacted, especially with Republican Kevin Kiley seat District 3 now spilling into parts of Sacramento. I mean, what’s your takeaway there, Andrew? So I think the winners would be folks around Sacramento, Garamendi, Harder, the losers are LaMalfa, the Republican whose seat now becomes *** lot more Democratic. And then there’s *** bunch of we’ll see, and I think the Sacramento seats are interesting because the registration favors the Democrats, but the performance, meaning how those seats have voted in the past, is *** little iffy. I think both the Kylie seat and the Barra seat, if we want to call those seats, Congressman Barra, Congressman Kylie have to make *** choice about where they’re going to run. Both those seats. Kamala Harris won 9 or 10 points, but when you look at Newsom’s re-election in 2022, it was much closer. So I think that this is the calculus that that these candidates are now looking at is what seats going to be better for me, and you know some people are going to run. Doris Matsui is going to run for re-election. Her seat now goes from Lodi to El Dorado Hills, has Elk Grove in the city of Sacramento. It’s more. Competitive, but it still leans Democratic. So I think looking at this, some of these seats, they look better, but they’re not amazing. Adam Gray, his seat’s gotten *** little bit better, but it’s still *** seat that’s very competitive. So perhaps I mean there’s no guarantee necessarily then that these Republicans that they’re targeting are removed from their districts. No, I mean, I think they, you know, I think Kevin Killer will have. *** tougher election, but he’s gone through tough elections. I mean, the Democrats target him every year and he’s come out OK. So now new district, it’s tougher. It goes into Sacramento, um, but you know who’s going to run against him, right? You got to have somebody to beat somebody and we’ll we’ll have to see who has the best, you know, that seat has 30% of Senator Ashby’s district. There’s, you know, *** couple of assembly members that have pieces of that that that. Potentially could run, but you know we’ll see. What are some of your other takeaways from the Sacramento area? I mean just considering, for example, Ami Bera may or may not be considering running for District 3. I mean, what do we see in this region? Is *** new seat created? Well, there is *** new seat created, but you don’t have to live to run for Congress. You don’t have to live in the district. So Kevin Kiley could make *** decision not to run against Amira. You know, I think this is what the decisions people are going to have to make now. There’s *** lot that has to happen between now and this initiative passing. But I’m assuming there’ll be, there are people talking about maybe I’ll run, you know, so we’ll have to see who ends up taking *** shot here and if Kevin Cowley doesn’t run against Barra and he runs in another seat. Then we’ll see. These will be competitive. There’ll be *** lot of money. National interests will be fully funding these campaigns because this is the whole point is to win back the House for the Democrats or keep it for the Republicans. OK, let’s bring up Los Angeles, that region which is also seeing changes as Democrats try to target Republican Ken Calvert in this area, also Darrell Issa down in San Diego. What is your major takeaway from this? Yeah, I mean, I think Calvert’s in *** little bit. Trouble. I think the Issa district has Palm Springs. He could self fund. It’s very competitive again, these are competitive districts. They’re not slam dunks. So you need the right Democrat to run because some of these over uber progressive Democrats might have *** problem in these purplish districts. And *** lot of these Republicans like young Kim in Orange County, they’ve had contested races. Young Kim beat Assemblywoman Cork Silva. To get into the legislature and then Cork Silva beat her and now she’s in Congress, so she’s had some of these people are battle tested. And we’ll see if Democrats can put up candidates that can take them on. Yeah, and potentially *** new Democratic seat in this Los Angeles area. Yeah, so that seat, it goes from sort of working class Latino all the way into Orange County and it grabs your Belinda, which is, as we all know, the home of the Nixon library. So you know it’s *** little bit of an interesting seat that goes all the way out there and gets *** very good picture of *** very conservative part of Orange County, but it’s pretty democratic, so I don’t think Republicans have *** chance there. All right, Andrew, any any other takeaway? you think we should know before we let you go? Well, I just think that you know you have to get good candidates, and I think this is the thing that we will get to see in some of these races of what candidate is going to come forward. There’s been *** lot of talk around Sacramento about people running for Congress, you know, elected leaders from the county, elected leaders from the legislature, so we’ll see. Andrew Acosta, we appreciate you working on these maps for us. Thank you. All right, well, when we come back, representatives Kevin Kiley and Amy Barra with their take on all of this. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to California Politics 360, and tonight we’re covering the state’s redistricting battle. Joining us now is Sacramento County Representative Amira. Representative Barra, thank you so much for joining us. Ashley, thanks for having me on. So I want to get right into it. You represent District 6, but right after these maps were released, we were hearing rumblings. You’re considering running in District 3, which has been drawn to try to remove Republican Kevin Kiley. Any update from you on which seat you plan to run for next year? You know what they did to my current district 6 was really split it into two districts. So both districts have about 60% of voters that have voted for me in the past. They bring Folsom back in the new district 3. You know, I’m talking to elected officials, you know, *** lot of folks in the Folsom area have reached out and said, hey, Congressman, we want you to represent us again because we don’t have the representation that that we had when you were here. So. You know, I might be leaning *** little bit towards the California 3 race, but I’m going to go through, do my due diligence, you know, talk to electeds, talk to supporters in the area, and the hope is, you know, sometime in that first or second week of September, I’ll make *** decision. OK, 1, 2nd week of December. So I, I’m sorry, 1st or 2nd week of September. September. OK, so fairly quickly you plan to move on this. OK, so my next question, your Democratic colleagues, California leaders have said this is an attempt to fight fire with fire based on what’s happening in Texas, where they’re essentially doing the same thing for Republicans. I mean, how confident are you though that this could be effective if other Republican states with looser redistricting laws also do the same? You know, I wish we weren’t actually going through this. You know, I may end up running against Kevin Kiley, but I support the bill that he’s put forth saying, let’s not do any mid-decade redistricting in any state. Um, that said, we’ve already seen Texas approve new congressional lines, so I think we have to Do what we can in California, and I would hope other states take *** look in those, you know, states like New York, Illinois, others would, you know, fight fire with fire. Again, I would hope that we ban mid-decade redistricting, but this is about what the future of this country looks like. Any discussion with minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Republican Kevin Kiley’s proposal? Well, you know what, I think when we get back next week, um, there’ll be *** lot of discussion. I think you probably will see Democrats um speak out in support. And again, if, um, that bill were to put, be put on the floor by Speaker Johnson, I think you’d see *** lot of Democratic support. OK, and just I want to circle back to your district before we let you go. Representative Barrow, what would be your message to Republicans in either District 3 or District 6 who are maybe concerned about losing their representation in Congress? I mean, what I’d say to to constituents throughout the Sacramento region is, um, this is *** region that post-COVID is on the recovery. We’ve got challenges, we’ve got to build more housing. You know, if I were to represent the new District 3, you know, the Tahoe Truckee Basin is one of the jewels of California. We’ve got to maintain, make sure we preserve that. We’ve had devastating forest fires. Got to make sure we manage our forests, um, very well. Um, I would get Folsom Lake back, and that is hugely important to our surface water and drinking water in this region, so I continue to work on those issues of water because we’ve had really bad droughts. And then, you know, in the District 6, this is all interconnected. So, you know, whether I’m in District 3 or District 6, I see us as *** region. Representative Barra, thank you so much for your time and joining us tonight. Thanks, Ashley. Be well. Joining us now is Representative Kevin Kiley, one of the Republicans whose seat is being targeted in the proposed maps. Representative Kylie, thank you so much for joining us. Of course, thanks for having me. First, you introduced this proposal to prohibit mid-decade redistricting nationwide. What’s the status of that measure? Well, as soon as Congress reconvenes next week, I’m going to push for it to be heard as quickly as possible. I’ve asked the Speaker to bring it to the floor of the House of Representatives as soon as we’re back. Yeah, you made that request to the Speaker. Most recently in *** post on X publicly when he was criticizing California’s gerrymandering effort, you said, Mr. Speaker, these are nice words, but we need action, and you urged him again to bring that bill to the floor. I mean, have you spoken to the Speaker since? I mean, what are the chances that we actually see federal action in response to what’s happening in California? I’ve spoken to the Speaker multiple times and certainly conveyed my view to him, and we have bipartisan support for this. I’ve heard from folks on both sides of the aisle. Just think this is the wrong thing for our country of one state after another, gerrymandering in an unscheduled way in the middle of the decade. And of course it’s especially bad here in California because our voters have said specifically we don’t want this. They’ve said we should have it redistricting done by an independent commission. So this idea that now the politicians are trying to grab the power back and move our state backwards to this era of gerrymandering, it’s exactly the wrong thing for our state, but I don’t like gerrymandering wherever it occurs, whether it’s done by Republicans or Democrats. Do you feel like You’re being heard by the Republican Party though nationally on this issue which you seem to be fighting both sides at this point who are, you know, you’re on both ends here. Well, that’s what I promised when I first ran for Congress, is that I will stand up to either party in the interest of serving my constituents. And so if that’s what what’s required in the moment, then that’s fine. But the reality of the situation is that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican, don’t want this. Redistricting more to go on and to escalate. It’s bad for the country. It’s bad for representation. It’s bad for democracy, and that’s why my bill says just hold on, let’s put this on pause. Let’s get back to the issues that actually matter to the American people. Do you worry at all about how your district could be reshaped if voters do end up approving these maps? Well, of course I don’t want my district to be blown into 6 different pieces as is being proposed, but you know, I honestly believe that I could win reelection, whatever the map looks like. Because when you go inside the mind of the gerrymanderer, in this case, the governor, they’re really it’s really offensive, it’s insulting to voters because the assumption is that if we just move voters with these characteristics into this district, then they’ll vote the way that we want. But that’s not the way it works, you know. Voters are smarter than that. They look at the individual, they look at the issues, they look at whether that person has delivered for the issues that matter to their community, and that’s why I’ve been able to get votes from Democrats, Republicans. Independence in the past, but I don’t think this will be an issue. I think that if we get out the truth, then California voters are going to say, why don’t we not tear up the map drawn by the independent commission that we put in place. Let’s keep the districts the way that they are until we get the next census at the beginning of the next decade. That’s the way that it’s supposed to be done. Representative Kylie, thank you so much for joining us. Well, after the break, my conversation with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on what this all means for voters. That’s coming up. Welcome back to California Politics 360, and tonight we’re covering the redistricting battle. I had the chance to catch up with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber as elections officials work on *** very tight timeline ahead of that November 4th election. Here’s what she had to say about the effort itself and the cost. This effort here in California to have voters approve or reject these Democratic drawn lines, is this an effort that you’re on board with? We are involved with it and uh obviously there’s no good answer to that question because obviously the current situation in Washington and everywhere in Texas makes response important and so we’re not for all those circumstances probably wouldn’t wouldn’t have this conversation. But there has to be an effort to fight back at some point to protect the democracy that we believe in. With that, I know there’s been *** lot of questions around how much the special election will cost. Any update on those figures. Uh, my staff has figures, and I think that the finance office is working with it, so rather than give numbers that aren’t really verified by, uh, what we’ve collected from all the counties, we allow the, the, uh, Department of Finance to give us those answers. But at this hour, state officials have yet to release how much money exactly they plan to spend. Of course, we’ll continue to update you as we get more details. Coming up, another look back in the KCRA 3 archives at redistricting in California over the years. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to California Politics 360. And finally tonight, another look back at how this all started. It was back in 2008, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger backed the measure that established the state’s independent redistricting commission. Constitution starts we the people. Not we the legislators, we the lawmakers. That’s video from the KC 3 archives back in 2007. 3 years later, Schwarzenegger would go on to support *** measure that expanded the commission’s power to include drawing congressional districts. After leaving office, he also campaigned in other states trying to get them to. Use California’s model as well. And now fast forward to 2025, and Schwarzenegger is prepared to campaign against this redistricting push in this post on X during *** recent pump, he said, quote, I’m getting ready for the gerrymandering battle while wearing *** t-shirt there that said in part, Terminate gerrymandering. And we want to show you some video from 2010 when the state conducted its first ever lottery to select the members of the Citizens redistricting Commission. The state auditor drew the numbers for eight finalists out of 30,000 initial applicants. I have to admit at first I was *** little nervous but very excited as well. I kept telling my staff we’re part of California history. And of course all that could now change as we head into the November special election. Stay with us as we continue to follow this effort. Thank you so much for joining California Politics 360.