Redistricting: How It’s Done

The basics of redistricting are simple: legislative and congressional districts are redrawn to make them relatively equal in population.

In the 1990s, California’s 45-member congressional delegation--already the biggest in the nation--is expected to grow by four to six seats, making it comprise 11% to 12% of the entire House of Representatives.

In the Assembly and state Senate, the possibility for displacement is huge because there are fixed numbers of seats. For example, an inner city politician, such as Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), may be looking at expanding the geographical size of her district because its population has grown far less proportionately than, say, southern Orange County. But she must encroach on someone else’s district to add areas that would keep her district safe for her.

William L. Cavala, deputy director of Assembly Majority Services, explained the process like this:

“Take a sheet of paper, for example, and draw a square next to the Pacific Ocean, so it can’t grow in that direction. It’s underpopulated by 50,000. So it grows 50,000 toward the Nevada border. That takes (population) from another district, which has to take it from other districts or some combination of districts.”

Even merely reducing the geographical size of a legislator’s district to account for new growth can be traumatic. And there is always the possibility that important parts of their districts--a favorite place for fund-raisers, or the cemetery in which family members are buried, or even their own homes--can end up in someone else’s territory.