California’s sleazy redistricting beats having an unhinged president
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SACRAMENTO — While President Trump was pushing National Guard troops from city to city like some little kid playing with his toy soldiers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was coaxing voters into fighting the man’s election-rigging scheme.
It turned out to be an easy sell for the governor. By the end, Californians appeared ready to send a loud message that they not only objected to the president’s election rigging but practically all his policies.
Trump is his own worst enemy, at least in this solidly blue state — and arguably the California GOP’s biggest current obstacle to regaining relevancy.
Here’s a guy bucking for the Nobel Peace Prize who suggests that the country resume nuclear weapons testing — a relic of the Cold War — and sends armed troops into Portland and Chicago for no good reason.
The commander in chief bizarrely authorized Marines to fire artillery shells from a howitzer across busy Interstate 5. Fortunately, the governor shut down the freeway. Or else exploding shrapnel could have splattered heads in some topless convertible. As it was, metal chunks landed only on a California Highway Patrol car and a CHP motorcycle. No injuries, but the president and his forces came across as blatantly reckless.
And while Trump focused on demolishing the First Lady’s historic East Wing of the White House and hitting up billionaire grovelers to pay for a monstrous, senseless $300-million ballroom — portraying the image of a spoiled, self-indulgent monarch — Newsom worked on a much different project. He concentrated on building a high-powered coalition and raising well over $100 million to thwart the president with Proposition 50.
The ballot measure was Newsom’s and California Democrats’ response to Trump browbeating Texas and other red states to gerrymander congressional districts to make them more Republican-friendly. The president is desperate to retain GOP control of the House of Representatives after next year’s midterm elections.
Newsom retaliated with Prop. 50, aimed at flipping five California House seats from Republican to Democrat, neutralizing Texas’ gerrymandering.
It’s all sleazy, but Trump started it. California’s Democratic voters, who greatly outnumber Republicans, indicated in preelection polling that they preferred sleazy redistricting to an unhinged president continuing to reign roughshod over a cowardly, subservient Congress.
A poll released last week by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that 93% of likely Democratic voters supported Prop. 50. So did 57% of independents. Conversely, symbolic of Trump’s hold on the GOP and our political polarization, 91% of Republicans opposed the measure.
Similar partisan voting was found in a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. Pollster Mark Baldassare said that “96% of the people voting yes on 50 disapprove of Trump.”
Democrats — 94% of them — also emphatically disapproved of the Trump administration’s immigration raids, the PPIC poll showed. Likewise, 67% of independents. But 84% of Republicans backed how the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency was rounding up people living here illegally.
ICE agents shrouded in masks and not wearing identification badges while traveling in unmarked vehicles — raiding hospitals, harassing school kids and chasing farmworkers — are not embraced in diverse, immigrant-accepting California.
When the PPIC poll asked voters how undocumented immigrants should be handled, 69% — including 93% of Democrats — chose this response: “There should be a way for them to stay in the country legally.” But 67% of Republicans said they should be booted.
The ICE raids were among the Trump actions — and flubs — that helped generate strong support for Prop. 50. It was the voters’ device for sticking it to the president.
“Californians are concerned about the overreach of the federal government and that helped 50,” Democratic consultant Roger Salazar says. “It highlights how much the Trump administration has pushed the envelope. And a yes vote on Prop. 50 was a response to that.”
Jonathan Paik, director of a Million Votes Project coalition that contacted 2 million people promoting Prop. 50, says: “We heard very consistently from voters that they were concerned about the impact of Trump’s ICE raids and the rising cost of living. These raids don’t just target immigrants, they destabilize entire communities and deepen economic struggles.
“Voters saw Prop. 50 as a way to restore balance and protect their families’ ability to work, pay rent and live safely.”
The measure also provided a platform for Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California to explore possibly joining a crowded field of candidates running for governor. Newsom is termed-out after next year.
The Trump administration did Padilla a gigantic favor in June by roughing up the senator and handcuffing him on the floor when he tried to query Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a Los Angeles news conference about ICE raids. Such publicity for a politician is golden.
Padilla became a leading advocate for Prop. 50 while seriously considering a gubernatorial bid. The senator said he’d decide after Tuesday’s special election.
“I haven’t made any decision,” he told me last week. “Sometime in the next several weeks.”
But it’s tempting for this L.A. native, the son of Mexican immigrants who was inspired to enter politics by anti-immigrant bashing in the 1990s.
“I’d have an opportunity and responsibility to be a leading voice against that,” he said. “California can be a leader for the rest of the country on immigration, environmental protection, reproductive equality, healthcare…”
In many ways it already is. But Trump hates that. And California Republicans step in it by meekly following the hugely unpopular president. Prop. 50 is the latest result.
California Republicans can do better than behave like Trump’s wannabe reserve toy soldiers.
What else you should be reading
The must-read: A youth movement is roiling Democrats. Does age equal obsolescence?
The what happened: Most Americans have avoided shutdown woes. That might change.
The L.A. Times Special: Voters in poll side with Newsom, Democrats on Prop. 50 — a potential blow to Trump and GOP
Until next week,
George Skelton
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- The author argues that Proposition 50 represents a justified response to President Trump’s efforts to pressure Texas and other Republican-led states into aggressive mid-cycle redistricting that would benefit the Republican party and preserve GOP control of the House of Representatives.
- While characterizing the measure itself as “sleazy,” the author contends that voters rationally prefer this action to what the author depicts as Trump’s reckless and dangerous governance, including military actions, federal immigration enforcement raids, and other policies viewed as threats to democratic norms.
- The author emphasizes that polling demonstrates overwhelming support for Prop 50 among Democrats and a substantial majority of independents, attributing this backing partly to broader voter disapproval of the Trump administration’s federal overreach, particularly immigration enforcement raids targeting undocumented immigrants.
- The author suggests that Trump’s unpopularity and controversial actions inadvertently strengthened support for the measure, with voters seeing Prop 50 as a tool to counterbalance what they perceive as existential threats to democracy and established governmental practices.
- The author argues that California Republicans have weakened their political standing by closely following Trump, suggesting they would benefit from pursuing a more independent political direction.
Different views on the topic
- Critics contend that Proposition 50 undermines California’s long-standing commitment to independent redistricting, arguing that the measure allows politicians to choose their voters rather than permitting voters to choose their politicians[1][2].
- Opponents, including former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, argue that approving Prop 50 contradicts stated principles of democratic governance by dismantling the independent redistricting commission and represents a hypocritical abandonment of these ideals[1].
- Critics warn that Proposition 50 sets a troubling precedent that reopens the door to partisan redistricting in California, potentially undermining the state’s institutional stability and eroding public confidence in electoral processes[2].
- Opponents contend that enabling Democratic dominance through the measure reduces meaningful political competition and accountability within California, eliminating the checks and balances that a viable opposition party typically provides[2].
- Critics also cite practical fiscal concerns, noting that the special election required to approve and implement new maps involves significant taxpayer costs[3].
