The Nov. 4 vote entails Proposition 50, which might gerrymander the state to spice up Democratic possibilities of profitable as many as 5 added Home seats within the 2026 midterm election. The intent is to partially compensate for Republican gerrymanders in Texas and different states.
One might ask whether or not the not-insignificant value of the particular election is the most effective use of taxpayer {dollars}, or if the sum can be higher spent, as veteran GOP strategist Ken Khachigian steered in a current Wall Road Journal opinion piece, “on firefighters, police officers, schoolteachers and road repairs.”
There’s, nonetheless, an added, if intangible, value to Proposition 50: Successfully disenfranchising thousands and thousands of conservative and Republican-leaning Californians, who already really feel as if they’re ignored and politically impotent.
Below the Democratic gerrymander, the already-meager Republican Home contingent — 9 of 52 California Home members — might be minimize virtually in half. Beginning in January 2027, the state’s complete Republican delegation might slot in a Jeep Wagoneer, with loads of room to spare.
This in a state the place Trump obtained over 6 million votes in 2024.
The price of California’s particular election is estimated at $282.6 million. The marketing campaign is successfully a roll out for a Newsom presidential bid.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Instances)
The would-be autocrat issuing diktats from the Oval Workplace could also be odious to many. However making folks really feel as if their vote is irrelevant, their voice is muzzled they usually don’t have any stake in our political system as a result of elections are basically meaningless — a minimum of so far as which social gathering prevails — just isn’t a recipe for a contented and engaged citizenry, or a wholesome democracy.
We have already got a chief govt who has repeatedly demonstrated that he sees himself because the president of pink America, of those that help him unequivocally, with everybody else considered evil or subversive. We’ve seen how nicely that’s labored out.
Is the answer electing a governor for blue California, who — if not overtly scorning the state’s thousands and thousands of Republicans — is prepared to render them politically powerless?
Proponents of Proposition 50 say the measure is required to offset Republican gerrymanders in Texas and different states.
(Hon Wing Chiu/For The Instances)
Your pleasant columnist put the query to these seven Democrats. What do they are saying to Republican voters who already really feel disregarded and politically unrepresented? As governor, is there a spot for them in your imaginative and prescient of California?
Most, as you’d anticipate, vowed to be a governor for all: Pink, blue, impartial, libertarian, vegetarian.
Former Rep. Katie Porter famous she served a purple Orange County district and received help from voters of all stripes “because they knew I wouldn’t hesitate to stand up for anyone — no matter to what party they belong — who makes life harder for California families.” She stated in a textual content message she’d carry “that same tenacity, grit and courage” to Sacramento.
Toni Atkins, a former Meeting speaker and state Senate chief, texted that she’s “made it a priority to listen to every Californian — Democrat, Republican, and Independent.” Assailing Republicans in Congress, she described Proposition 50 as “a way to fight back now” whereas ultimately reverting to the impartial redistricting fee that drew up the present congressional traces.
Xavier Becerra, the state’s former lawyer basic and a member of Joe Biden’s cupboard, stated he would work to see that each one Californians, no matter social gathering, profit from his management on healthcare, housing and making the state extra inexpensive. Doing that, he texted, requires combating Trump and “Republican extremists” in search of to rig the midterm elections.
Betty Yee, the previous state controller, simply completed a marketing campaign swing by rural California, the place, she stated, voters requested related questions alongside the traces of what about us? These huge reaches past the state’s blue coastal enclaves have lengthy been a hotbed of resentment towards California’s ruling Democratic institution.
Yee stated she urged voters there to “look at your representation now.” The Republican-run Congress, she famous, has accredited price range cuts that threaten to close down rural hospitals and intestine badly wanted social safety-net applications. “How is that representing your interest?” she requested.
Tony Thurmond, the state faculties superintendent, stated a lot the identical.
“One of the reasons that I support this measure is because California Republicans in Congress who voted for the ‘big, beautiful bill’ voted for a bill that they knew was going to throw millions of people off of health insurance,” Thurmond stated. “And that’s troubling, and I actually think that this is a way to counter that action and to make changes in Congress.”
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and businessman Stephen Cloobeck ignored the query about Republican sentiments and assailed Trump.
Villaraigosa referred to as Proposition 50 “a temporary … direct response to MAGA’s election rigging efforts in Texas.” Cloobeck texted, “This is not the way it should be, but democracy and California are under attack, and there is no way in hell I’m not going to FIGHT.”
There’s a sure presumption and paternalism to the notion that California Democrats know what’s finest for California Republicans.
However as Thurmond famous, “They have a right to vote it down. We’re putting it in front of the voters and giving them a chance to exercise their viewpoints, democratically.”
Each Californian who casts a poll can determine what most closely fits them.
As they need to.
