California Citizens Redistricting Commission - Maps: First Draft

wedrawthelines.ca.gov ^ | 10 June 2011

[CounterCounterCulture]

June 10, 2011, Commission Votes 14-0 to Approve 1st Draft District Maps

With four 14-0 votes, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission has released its first round of draft maps for Congressional, State Assembly, State Senate and Board of Equalization districts.

The Commission is now soliciting public comment on the draft districts. Testimony can be submitted online to votersfirstact@crc.ca.gov, by mail to the Citizens Redistricting Commission, 901 P Street, Suite 154-A, Sacramento, CA 95814 or by FAX at 916-651-5711. The Commission will be holding 11 public input hearings in June on the draft maps. The hearing schedule and the draft maps can be found at the Commission’s website at www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov.

[CounterCounterCulture]

For your perusal. Check out your areas of interest and report back, positive or negative or indifferent, how the maps look. You can also provide feedback as indicated in the body text above.

[Liz]

ping

[newzjunkey]

I sit on the edge of district lines. At first look, those draft maps couldn't be more useless to me. There's insufficient context to tell where the shifts are.

The commission must not be able to afford spell check. "Introduction," page two, "VOTING RIGHS ACT."

The "Narrative" link returns a 404. Typical.

[p. henry]

My first impression is that the proposed map for San Diego County (where I live) is not too bad. We currently have three Pubbies and two Dems. I think the new map has one safe Dem, three safe Pubbies and possibly one (mine) tossup. It may in fact favor a Dem, but it seems less safe for my really bad Representative (Susan Davis) than her current district.

[Mariner]

First glance shows less gerrymandering.

Not that it really matters.

Generally the GOP doesn't deserve votes in CA...Arnold...Whitman etc.

Of course we also have McClintock...a star.

Oh well.

[newzjunkey]

I've been looking at the "detail maps," it looks like they aim to pick up a House seat for the Dems in San Diego.

The 50th (Bilbray-R) appears under attack. It's hacked and merged with the 53rd (Davis-D) district downtown which could flip it. They carve a new district into an east and south county area which looks like potential Democrat territory.

[CounterCounterCulture]

I didn’t see anything too cartographically obscene in the Bay Area / Central Coast / Northwest California areas.

My areas of concern:

The old State Senate District 15 (currently Sam Blakeslee, formerly Abel Maldonado) still stretches from southern Santa Clara County and goes down to Santa Maria.

Santa Rosa in the state senate and corresponding assembly district is being thrown into the north/east bay instead of being in the north coast, where another chunk of area (such as Lake County and American Canyon) could have gone instead.

But overall for the areas I viewed seems to be an improvement over the last redrawing.

I’m looking for more feedback to see if there are other areas of concern.

And keep in mind there will be public hearings on these first draft. MALDEF and other special interests very much attend these meetings, so do try to attend your local hearing.

[CounterCounterCulture]

Full Meetings/Hearings Schedule (June-July)

June 16, 2011: Culver City
June 17, 2011: Whittier
June 18, 2011: Fullerton
June 19, 2011: San Bernardino
June 20, 2011: San Diego
June 22, 2011: Oxnard
June 23, 2011: Fresno
June 24, 2011: Stockton
June 25, 2011: San Jose
June 27, 2011: San Francisco
June 28, 2011: Sacramento
June 29, 2011: Sacramento
June 30, 2011: Sacramento
July 1, 2011: Sacramento
July 5, 2011: Sacramento
July 6, 2011: Sacramento
July 7, 2011: Sacramento
July 22, 2011: Sacramento
July 23, 2011: Sacramento
July 27, 2011: Sacramento

Go to website for details (location, time, agenda, etc.)

[Carry_Okie]

Not much different for me other than the Congressional district. I won’t have Anna Eschoo any more. We’ll see.

[newzjunkey]

I'm in the same county and was looking at that.

I'm concerned moving Davis' downtown district into a reduced Bilbray district could flip it to the Dems. If they went with these proposed lines I'd be drawn into that 'toss-up' district.

I'm not sure about the new district. It looks like it could be a Dem safe spot or closer to toss up as you suggest.

[CounterCounterCulture]

I might be trading Zoe Lofgren for Mike Honda. Whooptee-doo.

[scrabblehack]

http://www.mpimaps.com/mapanalysis/crc-draft-congressional-plan/

They’ve given the districts letter codes instead of numbers.

Gallegly R and McKeon R are in the same district.
Issa R and Bilbray R are in the same district.
Chu D and Gary Miller R are in the same district.
Dreier is now in a definite Dem district.
Loretta Sanchez appears very beatable.

Charlie Cook has Gallegly, Bilbray, and Gary Miller losing.
Possibly Miller could move to ONTPM - he’d still be at a disadvantage but much less of a disadvantage than he is in SGVDB.

Other pairs/trios:

Speier D and Eshoo D
Linda Sanchez D and Richardson D
Denham R, Costa D, and Cardoza D (Denham slight favorite)
Sherman D and Berman D
Baca D and Lewis R (seat favors Baca)
Stark D and McNerney D
Becerra D and Roybal-Allard D
Rohrabacher R and Campbell R
Matsui D and McClintock R (seat favors Matsui)
Rohrabacher R and Campbell R
Filner D and Davis D

Eshoo could move to SNMSC; maybe Richardson would move to HTGCC. The IMSAN seat favors the Dems, so maybe Costa would move to it and avoid a primary fight with Cardoza.
SFVET also favors the Dems; Sherman and Berman could work a deal that one moves there.

Lewis appears to be at a substantial disadvantage in SBRIA;
if he wanted to be a team player he could run in RVMVN — if he’s selfish he’ll run in INMSB (a Republican could win in his sleep there).

Not sure about McNerney - I’m thinking he’d be the one to move rather than Stark - STANI (R’s favored) or SNJOA (D’s favored).

There’s no empty district next to ELABH - so not sure what happens to Becerra vs. Roybal-Allard. Becerra probably has better funding.

Not sure about McClintock either - I’d guess he moves to FTHLL or possibly his old home in EVENT.

Campbell could move to STHOC.

IMSAN is more heavily Democrat than CHNCS; Filner and Davis might each *prefer* to move to IMSAN.

Overall R’s appear to gain a seat.

[scrabblehack]

I’m not sure what I was thinking with IMSAN and Costa.
KINGS appears to be a Republican seat. If Dems wanted to avoid a primary fight, Cardoza would have to move to STANI or SNJOA.

Apparently Charlie Cook discounted the possibility of Bilbray moving to MMRHB.

I wonder which (if any) of these seats might take Kucinich?

[scrabblehack]

Capps (D-Ribbon of Shame) is in a much harder seat to defend.

[SierraWasp]

Ping...

[Amerigomag]

Same old gerrymandering. Same old BS.

When I see a map of Assembly districts whose shape mimics a rectangle, whose boundaries are generally horizontal or vertical, whose boundaries ignore existing political subdivisions (counties, cities, existing tax districts, etc.), then I've seen an embodiment of the spirit of the law.

Until then, it matters not if the whores are in the California Assembly or on a California Citizens Redistricting Commission.

[Avoiding_Sulla]

I’ve been removed from Becerra and given to Waxman. I guess it’s better that the devil is ugly.