by Gene Wunderlich
Most of you are aware that we are undergoing a massive redistricting effort that will impact our County, our State and our Federal elective districts. Certainly in California we’ve all been aware that in the past decade the political boundaries 1) make no sense and 2) produce landslides for the incumbent party. There are definite Republican Districts and definite Democratic Districts and it’s pretty much a waste of time for the alternate party to even field a candidate in those races. One seat has changed parties during the past 10 years out of over 250 separate races. 1!
But that’s all about to change. Maybe. Californians voted last fall to form a commission to draw the new districts – unlike the last time when we let the politicians draw their own. The Commission’s report is due out by mid-August and our area will be in for some changes because our region has grown faster than most regions of the state.
Starting at the County level, our Supervisorial boundaries will be redrawn to reflect the growth in Southwest County. Both Districts 1 and 3 will be modified with a greater focus on our area. At the state level we’ll also see some changes as the district boundaries will be redrawn to attempt to keep contiguous city interests in one sphere.
Right now Assemblymember Jeffries 66th District runs in a skinny strip from Ontario almost to the Mexican border. Brian Nestande’s 64th District splits some of Jeffries’ cities down to Temecula then heads east nearly to the Salton Sea – makes no sense. Our Senatorial District may also see some shifts as Bill Emmerson keeps a more contiguous area of Riverside County while Joel Anderson gives up some of the northern portion of his San Diego District that starts in Chula Vista.
In what is termed ‘nesting’, the hope is that a single Senatorial District will encompass 2 Assembly Districts rather than the hopscotch mess we have now. Our region also stands to pick up an additional federal representative as more of the population has shifted inland from coastal areas. The buzz has Mary Bono-Mack shifting more to the east end of the county around her Palm Springs base, Ken Calvert giving up some of Orange County to encompass more of his former Riverside constituency and Darrell Issa concentrating more in his San Diego region leaving Southwest County to form an entirely new District. That’s pretty exciting news.
The California Citizens Redistricting Commission will be holding a series of public forums to hear OUR input leading up to a preliminary release of boundaries in late June or July. A complete summary of hearing dates and more information can be found at www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov. Local meetings include one on May 5 in Norco, May 9 in Riverside, May 12 in Palm Springs and June 19 in San Bernardino. Maybe if we are eventually recognized for the clout we have, a future meeting will actually be scheduled for the heart of the growth area. Maybe.
Further complicating the political landscape is the new open primary rule, again resulting from the last election. There will no longer be Republican and Democratic primaries, just one big free-for-all. The top two candidates will run against each other in the fall. The theory is that this will draw more candidates from the middle of the road rather than the ideological edges of party politics.
One thing certain is that it will cost way more money to mount aggressive primary and general campaigns so follow the money trail to see who the winners and losers will be. You little guys and regular citizens can forget about it.
Between re-districting and open primaries, our political landscape will be substantially altered by next June’s elections. Don’t know if it’ll be better or worse but it will be different. Will it resolve our chronic dysfunction at the state and federal level? Not until people start voting for candidates who actually know something – so that’s not likely to change. The rest we’ll just have to see about.