New Lines May Hurt Condit’s Chances

Redistricting architects said Thursday that the San Joaquin Valley seat of embattled Congressman Gary Condit (D-Ceres) will be redrawn to make it stronger for Democrats at future elections--and perhaps less hospitable to Condit.

Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda), chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee, said the new district would be formally proposed in the next couple of days.

“We’re not throwing [Condit] over the side. We did not draw him out of a seat,” Perata said. “If anything, we improved the seat. Whether he chooses to run for reelection in it is up to him.”

He said the chief issue from the outset, long before Condit became embroiled in Chandra Levy’s disappearance, was to create a safer district for Democrats.

Condit, a “blue dog” Democrat who appeals to Republicans and conservative Democrats in what he calls “Condit Country,” has won every election easily since he first ran for Congress in 1989.

By reshaping it to collect more Democrats, Perata said Democrats “feel we can hold it for a decade.”

Perata said that under the Senate Democratic plan, Condit’s district would be stretched northward up California 99 to include south Stockton, whose Democrats are considered more liberal than those in most parts of the existing district.

“It becomes a 52% Democratic seat instead of the 46% seat it is now,” Perata said, noting that Condit’s home in Ceres would remain in the district.

The plan will be included in public hearings next week, along with the Senate’s and the Assembly’s redistricting plans for their chambers.

Perata said a second marginal East Bay Area district represented by Congresswoman Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Alamo) also will be realigned to improve its Democratic strength.

Perata disclosed the plan for Condit’s district on the same day he and Sen. President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) announced the Senate’s plan for redistricting that legislative body.

They insisted that it treats minority Republicans fairly by maintaining the status quo of 26 Democratic seats and 14 GOP seats.

Perata said the plan also protects seats in minority communities.

“We have no regression, so minorities would not lose their voting strength,” Perata said.

Senate GOP Leader Jim Brulte said he had not fully analyzed the Democratic proposal and would not comment on it until he had done so.

Republicans who had a sneak preview of the new district maps seemed pleased, however, that the majority Democrats had not created boundaries that would further thin their ranks.

“It seems like the framework for a status quo plan,” said one GOP lawmaker who asked not to be identified. “The Democrats didn’t go out of their way to hammer Republicans.”

The Senate maps were assailed by at least one minority organization, the California Latino Redistricting Coalition, which criticized the Assembly plan Wednesday.

“This plan is worse than the Assembly plan for the Latino community,” said Alan Clayton, the group’s research director. “It is clearly unacceptable. It treats the Latino, African American and Asian American communities unfairly.”

In one major change, the district represented by Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) would be stretched westward to include Santa Barbara. That creates a safe GOP district, analysts said.

Perata said the districts of the Senate’s two African American members, Sens. Kevin Murray of Culver City and Edward Vincent of Inglewood, will continue to represent minority constituents. Murray’s district would include Culver City but move also into Los Feliz and Hollywood.

The political turf of Vincent and Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) were virtually swapped. But Bowen’s new district would shift to reach Wilshire Boulevard and include Cheviot Hills and Palms, Perata said.