The recent ProPublica article entitled "How Democrats Fooled California’s Redistricting Commission" has really got my blood boiling. Echoing John Burton's response (give or take a few expletives), I have a few thoughts of my own regarding this incendiary and sensationalist drivel of an article that seems to have been written (and I use the term loosely) by people unfamiliar with California and California politics and has has more logical and factual holes in it than one of Michele Bachmann's speeches.
Wasn't it Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger who pushed the idea of this so-called "Independent Commission" to begin with in the lofty name of "reform"? And I for one think the composition of this commission gave Republicans an outsized influence in the redistricting process. Why is it that the commission must be composed of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans when the partisan composition of the state is far from this actual ratio? If this commission was to accurately reflect the people of this state, then it should have more Democrats and registered DTS and not have as many Republicans on it.
And as for the claim that it was so-called GOP-leaning areas that grew - yes - I wholeheartedly agree (I am a resident of the Inland Empire myself). However - to then make the intuitive jump that this should then translate into more Republican seats is absolutely laughable and pathetic. GOP-leaning areas may have grown - but the demographics fueling that growth is a) Democratic-leaning, b) Republican-averse, or c) a combination of both. The growth of the Latino population in California in areas like the Central Valley and the Inland Empire, coupled with the CA GOP's sheer and utter failure to effectively reach out and make themselves electorally palatable to this group, as well as a concerted and organized effort launched by the CA Democratic Party to reach out and register voters in these areas has all but resulted in blue districts emerging from traditionally GOP areas, and accordingly the creation of competitive purple districts that will just get bluer if the CA GOP continues on its ruinous path of self-irrelevance. And this is not without precedent - Loretta Sánchez shattered the notion of a solidly red Orange County when she ousted Bob Dornan in 1996. She continues to represent a Democratic district within GOP-leaning Orange County. And what happened in Santa Ana in the mid-1990s is happening now in other parts of Orange and San Diego Counties and the Inland Empire. Furthermore - while this article slyly points out that Democratic registration has only risen "marginally" over the past couple of years - it neglects to discuss Republican registration in California and whether or not it has risen, declined, or stayed stagnant. It's already a bit too presumptuous to assert that "marginal" registration gains should not translate into any electoral gains for the Democrats, but it takes on an entirely new specter of stupidity to imply that said marginal gains translates to an increase in Republicans and thus, more Republican seats.
And Democrats gaming the system? Tell that to Howard Berman and Brad Sherman or Janice Hahn and Laura Richardson who have been thrown in similar districts together. Tell that to Lois Capps, John Garamendi, and Joe Baca who have to run in districts that have been so reconfigured beyond recognition that they're virtually running in new districts. It should also not be forgotten that the infamous 2000 gerrymander produced an incumbent protection map - meaning Republicans gained from it or were protected by it too. David Dreier, Elton Gallegly, Dan Lungren, and Brian Bilbray are still around because of this gerrymander, and they are all running scared now because their safe districts are also being reconfigured (or in Dreier's case - completely dismantled) to be more competitive. And if we're keeping score - the Commission's map creates two districts that pits two Democratic incumbents together (Sherman vs Berman in the new 30th and Hahn vs Richardson in the new 44th) while only creating one district where two Republican incumbents will have to run against one other - Gary Miller vs Ed Royce in the new 39th.
And I take special umbrage in the way Judy Chu was portrayed in this article. First of all, Judy Chu is from Monterey Park, not Rosemead. Although she may have had her start in the Rosemead-based Garvey School Board, her base is in Monterey Park, which is a different city. Second - for as much as her district includes areas that she formerly represented in the state assembly - her current district now - the 32nd - covers a wide area outside of that and is demographically different too. And despite the gossipy tone this article has taken in discussing her reelection prospects, part of the area of her district of choice - the 27th - overlaps with that of her current district - the 32nd. Judy Chu also represented MOST of LA County - including the areas she represents now in Congress - when she was ELECTED in 2006 to serve in the state Board of Equalization to represent the 4th BoE District - a post she held until winning the 2009 special election to succeed now-Sec. of Labor Hilda Solis. In short - she isn't exactly an enigmatic stranger unknown to these parts who is ensconced in some clandestine effort to get herself elected in an area where she has no legitimate base of support. And just to press the point further - does this article imply that Judy Chu will lose if Rosemead is left out of her district? If we're to run with the flawed Rosemead hypothesis - Rosemead is a city of less than 54,000. It comprises less than 1/12 of her current district. Her district is also deep blue - Obama won it in 2008, while Boxer and Brown carried it in 2010 - all with over 60% of the vote. If we're going to play the race card and suggest that she wanted to influence the creation of an Asian-majority district because that in some way will help her win - I think that implication is also facetious in that she managed to win election her current district - the 32nd - which is 60%+ Hispanic and only 19% Asian, with over 60% of the vote in the 2009 special election and over 70% of the vote in the 2010 general. And from geographic and community of interest perspectives - it makes sense to lobby for the creation of a district that keeps together the adjacent Asian-majority or -plurality cities of the west San Gabriel Valley such as Rosemead, Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel, and Temple City. The authors of this article are trying to insert petty controversy where it needn't belong.
There's an adage "Don't hate the player, hate the game." In this instance, the CA GOP should hate neither the players - be it the Commission or the Democrats - or the game that is redistricting, but rather - it should hate itself. It has made itself so completely and utterly unpalatable to a wide swathe of voters in this state - thanks in large part to its own actions. It was not the CA Democrats that forced it to adopt a hardline ideological platform that is laced with homophobia, xenophobia, religious pandering, and anti-middle class fiscal dogma that serves to cater to the über-wealthy and the likes of Grover Norquist (does he even live in California?) and groups like the Howard Jarvis Society that are increasingly become irrelevant. If that is not what the Republicans are about - then it is a failure on their part again - in this instance to effectively message their platform and make it embraceable and relevant to voters. It was not the California Democratic Party that nominated their horrendous slate of statewide candidates for the 2010 election. As it stands right now, any which way they draw it - demographics and their failure to be a relevant force in state politics will produce a map in which they will be in the minority. No amount of their partisan gamesmanship (or accusations leveled thereof towards the Democrats) can make the GOP magically gain the amount of seats that they desire or nonsensically feel they're entitled to. And in the unlikely chance that the Democrats engaged in some malfeasance to influence the final forging of this map - then Republicans should blame themselves again for failing to show up and play this most critical game that they were betting their future power on.