Californians go to the polls Tuesday in a ballot likely to further tilt the liberal state towards the Democrats, as the party seeks to neutralize gerrymandering ordered by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Governor Gavin Newsom and his allies want voters to approve a temporary re-drawing of electoral districts that would give the Democratic Party five more seats in the scramble for control of the US Congress in next year’s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
They say they are only doing it to level the playing field after Texas Republicans pushed through their own redistricting — under White House pressure — to help maintain a narrow Congressional majority that has so far given Trump carte blanche.<\/p>\n
Republicans say it is a naked power grab that will disenfranchise the party’s voters in California, a state where they are heavily outnumbered by Democrats.<\/p>\n
The vote is “a political ink-blot test,” Los Angeles Times columnist Mark Barbarak wrote Monday.<\/p>\n
“A reasoned\u00a0attempt to even things out\u00a0in response to Texas’ attempt to nab five more congressional seats. Or a ruthless gambit to drive the California GOP to near-extinction.<\/p>\n
“What many California voters see depends on, politically, where they stand.”<\/p>\n
– Gerrymandering –<\/p>\n
Electoral districts across the US are traditionally drawn following the national census taken every ten years, theoretically so the electoral map reflects the people who live there.<\/p>\n
In reality, most boundaries are party political decisions, so whichever grouping is in power at the time gets to set the rules for the next decade’s contests.<\/p>\n
California did away with such partisan gerrymandering under former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, giving the power instead to an independent panel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If “Proposition 50” passes on Tuesday, politically drawn boundaries will take effect for all elections until the next census, when the panel will once again determine the maps.<\/p>\n
– ‘Stick it to Trump’ –<\/p>\n
Like almost everything in US politics at the moment, one figure looms over Tuesday’s vote.<\/p>\n
“Stick it to Trump on November 4th,” booms one of the largest advertising campaigns.<\/p>\n
The accompanying TV commercial has an irate Trump gorging on fast food as he hate-watches the imagined election result, jabbing at his TV control as he mutters about his victimhood.<\/p>\n
“If the Democrats don’t get dirty and get in the mud with the Republicans to fight back, we’re going to get run over,” 61-year-old contractor Patrick Bustad told canvassers in Los Angeles last week.<\/p>\n
Trump “wants to be a dictator, not a president,” said Bustad, recalling how the Republican refused to concede\u00a0the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n
Opponents of Proposition 50 have their own bogeyman.<\/p>\n
Newsom “wants it his way so he can rig it,” retiree Paula Patterson told AFP in the oil-producing town of Taft last month.<\/p>\n
“The Democrats are going to take over, and we’re not going to have any rights,” she said.<\/p>\n
Polls predict the initiative will pass handily — offering Newsom high-profile proof of his willingness to stand up to Trump.<\/p>\n
For a man widely expected to take a run at the White House in 2027, that would be very helpful.<\/p>\n
The telegenic governor has already begun projecting an air of confident authority, with his campaign largely winding up a week before the ballot.<\/p>\n
“You can stop donating,” he told supporters.<\/p>\n
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