This whole referendum in California is kind of complicated. Here’s what residents are voting on
By Arit John, CNN
(CNN) — One of the most consequential elections this year isn’t between a Democratic and Republican candidate, but over a ballot initiative in California.
Proposition 50 would allow California Democrats to replace the state’s congressional maps with ones the party hopes will help them to flip five GOP-held seats.
Democrats launched their redistricting push, led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, after Texas Republicans redrew their maps to create five new seats that will favor the GOP at the behest of President Donald Trump.
Newsom has made himself the face of the effort, investing his own political capital into his party’s efforts to win back control of the US House next year.
But while Texas Republicans were able to pass new maps through the legislative process, California Democrats had to first seek voter approval. That’s because Californians amended their state Constitution in 2010 to give an independent redistricting commission the power to set congressional lines.
Proposition 50 would give lawmakers the right to temporarily override that map through the 2030 election, after which the commission would draw the next decade’s maps.
Supporters of the measure have argued it will level the playing field ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to retake control of the US House, and serve as a check on the Trump administration. If passed, it would help Democrats neutralize much of the advantage Republicans have gained after redrawing congressional maps in Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina.
“The essence of Prop 50 is to say that if you are going to play that game, then we are going to try to counteract that abuse of the system,” said former President Barack Obama, who has thrown his support behind getting the measure approved, during a virtual event with Newsom last month.
Critics, however, say Proposition 50 would undermine the nationwide effort to promote nonpartisan redistricting, and they have said Democrats may be reluctant to relinquish the power to draw the congressional map in the next decade and cede seats back to Republicans. Several Democrats have already announced their plans to challenge incumbent Republicans in the proposed new districts.
“There’s this war going on all over the United States. Who can out cheat the other one?” former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served from 2003 to 2011, told CNN’s Jake Tapper in October. “Texas started it. They did something terribly wrong. And then all of a sudden California says, ‘Well, then we have to do something terribly wrong.’ And then now other states are jumping in.”
Newsom and other Democrats backing the measure have stressed that Proposition 50 reaffirms the state’s general support for independent redistricting, despite the current attempt to gerrymander the state.
The-CNN-Wire
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