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California may have a reputation as a bastion of blue, but there are only so many Democratic voters to go around.<\/p>\n
Under Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s plan to gerrymander California\u2019s congressional maps to favor Democrats, no incumbent Democrat would take on more Republican voters than Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach.<\/p>\n
Garcia\u2019s new district, rather than stretching north from his home town into liberal Los Angeles County, would instead shift southward to encompass a coastal slice of conservative Orange County \u2014 notably, the conservative-leaning cities of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.<\/p>\n
Absorbing those GOP voters into the 42nd congressional district is a point of pride for the 47-year-old Peruvian immigrant, a gay progressive whose sharp-tongued condemnations of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk catapulted him into party leadership as the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, the chamber\u2019s main investigative arm.<\/p>\n
He also serves on the committee\u2019s viral \u201cDOGE\u201d subgroup, where he and a group of fellow young progressives use their speaking time to lob sardonic rhetorical questions<\/a> that cast the proceedings and the chairwoman, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, as absurd and even laughable.<\/p>\n \u201cAre Bert and Ernie part of an extreme homosexual agenda?\u201d Garcia asked Paula Kerger, president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service, during a hearing in March as his staffer held up a life-sized image of the beloved muppet duo.<\/p>\n If his party retakes control of the House next year, Garcia would almost certainly ascend to chair the committee, which has vast subpoena powers, and would become the face of congressional Democrats\u2019 resistance to Trump.<\/p>\n But don\u2019t expect Garcia, a former Long Beach mayor and City Council member, to back down from his anti-MAGA bully pulpit just because he would then represent a town whose city council has embraced the moniker \u201cthe MAGA-nificent seven.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFolks have asked, \u2018Hey, you know, you’re pretty progressive. Is this gonna impact the way you take on Trump or the oversight committee?\u2019\u201d Garcia told political commentator Katie Phang during a virtual fundraiser for Prop. 50 last month.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Garcia\u2019s certainty that he\u2019ll win re-election next year, regardless of which maps are used, is precisely the problem with creating noncompetitive districts as Prop. 50 proposes to do, said state Sen. Tony Strickland, a Republican former mayor of Huntington Beach.<\/p>\n The city is currently represented by a Democratic congressmember, Rep. Dave Min of Irvine, who succeeded Democrat Katie Porter when she unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate last year. But since the district is currently drawn as a competitive seat, Strickland said, Min must win favor from at least some conservative voters if he wants to stay in office. That wouldn\u2019t be the case for Garcia, should Prop. 50 pass.<\/p>\n Strickland and other local officials in coastal Orange County are skeptical that Garcia \u2014 a former Long Beach mayor who said he\u2019s thrilled that his new district would include the entire city \u2014 will prioritize their cities\u2019 needs, especially if he doesn\u2019t need their votes to win.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with Prop. 50 is you have predetermined elections. You already know who your congressman is before election day,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cAs a pretty conservative city, both Newport and Huntington will have one of the most liberal members of Congress. And I just don’t think that’s healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n “We want to govern ourselves”<\/p>\n While Huntington Beach has long asserted its conservative tilt by resisting compliance with state laws they view as too liberal (such as housing construction requirements<\/a>), the city in recent years has embraced the national culture wars and grabbed headlines for leading a conservative backlash<\/a> to the state\u2019s ruling Democrats in Sacramento.<\/p>\n Residents last March approved a ban on flying the rainbow LGBTQ Pride flag<\/a> on city property. They greenlit a controversial ordinance requiring voters to bring ID to vote, which Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber argue violates state election laws<\/a>. (Oral arguments before an appeals court <\/a>are scheduled for Oct. 22).<\/p>\n And a simmering battle over sexual content in children\u2019s books and Huntington Beach\u2019s public library came to a head in June.<\/p>\n The city council had previously approved a controversial ordinance establishing a community review board<\/a> for library books \u2014 what critics dubbed a book ban \u2014 and also briefly explored privatizing the library<\/a>, policies they saw as a counterbalance to the state Legislature\u2019s ultraliberal, \u201cwoke\u201d laws. But this summer, via special election, voters overwhelmingly supported repealing the review board and limited the city\u2019s ability to outsource library services.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really just want home control. We want to govern ourselves,\u201d said Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns. He doesn\u2019t know Garcia personally, but as a former police officer in Long Beach he\u2019s familiar with the former councilmember\u2019s left-leaning politics.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully he’s open to helping us, but if he comes in and tries to break us, you know, break our community and try to crush our council in some way,\u201d Burns said, speaking of Garcia, \u201cwell, we’re going to resist. We’re not going to get along.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia argues that the successful repudiation of the library crackdown is evidence that the city council\u2019s right-wing approach doesn\u2019t fully represent residents\u2019 values.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vast majority of Huntington Beach are good, hard-working, middle-class folks that want a just future for themselves,\u201d Garcia told CalMatters in an interview. \u201cThat’s who I’m gonna represent.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia reiterated that he\u2019s unafraid to speak out, even when he disagrees with decisions made in cities that he represents. Even so, he said he would be proud to represent everyone in his proposed new district and would fight hard to bring federal dollars home to support local projects. He said he would prioritize issues that \u201ceveryone cares about,\u201d such as increased affordability, combating climate change and curbing corruption.<\/p>\n Still, Garcia also repeatedly noted that the proposed district would still be solidly Democratic. He effused confidence that he would handily win re-election next year and, he hopes, help Democrats retake control of the House.<\/p>\n Democrats have come under fire for drawing the new maps behind closed doors without input from the public or the independent citizens redistricting commission. But Paul Mitchell, the election data guru and redistricting expert who penned the proposed maps, said that in redrawing Garcia\u2019s district to include coastal Orange County, he and his team hewed closely to proposals that advocacy groups previously presented<\/a> to the independent commission.<\/p>\n Moving Garcia\u2019s district to Orange County was crucial to shore up support for three vulnerable Democrats \u2014 Min along with Representatives Derek Tran and Mike Levin \u2014 and creating two newly redrawn districts, currently held by Republican representatives Ken Calvert and Darrell Issa, that Democrats believe they can flip.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a critical piece of the puzzle,\u201d Mitchell said in an interview. \u201cIt facilitates everything in Southern California.\u201d<\/p>\n Fellow California Democrats have sung Garcia\u2019s praises for graciously allowing his district to go from one that Vice President Kamala Harris won by more than 32% last November to one in which Democrats only have a 10 percentage point registration advantage.<\/p>\n \u201cRobert Garcia is an incredible team player,\u201d said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chair of California\u2019s Democratic congressional delegation, in a written statement. \u201cHe\u2019s taking in some historically Republican neighborhoods, but it\u2019s still going to be a Democratic district.\u201d<\/p>\n During the same virtual fundraiser in September, Garcia told viewers that taking on more Republican voters was \u201cthe right thing to do\u201d because \u201cour democracy\u2019s at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a moment for us to worry about not having competitive seats or about being in Congress for a lifetime,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThis is about winning the majority to protect people and to save our country.\u201d<\/p>\n This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keep up with LAist. If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. 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