California Redistricting Update

Everybody has an opinion on the Citizens Redistricting Commission maps and most of them are angry. Minority groups, e.g. MALDEF, all claim the commission isn't giving them enough districts. Each city has an idea which other cities they should be with and where the boundaries should lie.

So it's no surprise the commission decided against putting out map second drafts. Instead, they're going to debate and put out "visualizations." These are pretty much ideas that haven't been voted on. This way they can get public input without getting lambasted. The visualizations might not even be an indication of the way the district is moving. So it's tough to get excited and there is no reason to be disappointed with anything you see. That said, the visualizations have shown changes. Here are the significant ones:

SGVBD goes from 44% Whitman to 60%
IMSAN goes from 34% Whitman to 48%.
MTCAP goes from 53% Whitman to 59%.
YUBA goes from 41% Whitman to 46%.
PVEBC goes from 42% Whitman to 46%.
WESTG goes from 50% Whitman to 43%.
AVSCV goes from 66% Whitman to 57%

There are 7 safe R districts that haven't been visualized, but I don't think they're in danger.

This visualization of the 36th district makes sense and is also a strong Republican map. As I mentioned this morning, it moves from a Likely Democratic district to a Lean Democratic.

This is the district Gary Miller hoped for. By taking Diamond Bar and combining it with Chino, Chino Hills, and North Orange County is a safe Republican district.

By adding some Republican areas to this district it goes from safe Democratic to toss-up. This district may impact Duncan Hunter's current district, but the previous draft was the most Republican district in the state. So it can handle shedding Republicans.

Of course the next visualizations might go the other way.