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California governor signs bills reforming local redistricting but vetoes some that would go further [1]

['Daily Kos Staff']

Date: 2023-10-11  

On Saturday, California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed three redistricting bills passed by the heavily Democratic legislature over Republican opposition. The bills will impose certain nonpartisan redistricting reforms on local governments statewide and create independent redistricting commissions for two populous counties. However, Newsom vetoed two other bills that would have required such commissions for many more local governments, which he argued would cost “tens of millions” of dollars and should be considered as part of the regular budget process instead.

One of the measures that Newsom signed builds on earlier reforms by requiring local governments across the state to draw maps according to several nonpartisan criteria, including a prohibition on favoring or disfavoring incumbents. It also establishes a streamlined process for legal challenges against flawed maps. The two other new laws will require independent commissions to draw maps after the 2030 census and beyond in Orange County, a swingy suburb of Los Angeles where Democrats last year won control for the first time since the 1970s, and solidly blue Sacramento County.

However, one of the bills that Newsom vetoed would have required independent commissions—and not just additional restraints on how elected officials can draw their own districts—in all cities and counties with at least 300,000 residents, along with community college and public school jurisdictions with at least 500,000 residents. The other vetoed bill would have specifically imposed an independent commission in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, though city councilors there recently advanced their own plan to create such a commission.

Los Angeles has been under intense pressure to reform redistricting after leaked audio recordings last year exposed how three prominent city councilors had made numerous bigoted remarks about various groups while redrawing their own districts in October 2021. That scandal led to City Council President Nury Martinez resigning last year, while one of the other two councilors had already lost his reelection bid. The third councilor, Kevin de León, is running again next year despite widespread calls for him to resign. Nevertheless, he will almost certainly face strong opposition.

California has been a national leader in adopting reforms to end gerrymandering. In 2008, voters used a ballot initiative to create an independent citizens' commission to handle legislative redistricting. And in 2010, another initiative had the same commission redraw congressional districts. Those commissioners have since drawn fairer maps, which have empowered local communities and created more competitive districts—something that reformers have since been seeking to adopt for local governments across the state.

The two bills Newsom vetoed had all passed with more than the two-thirds supermajorities needed to override a veto. However, California legislators have long adhered to a norm of not overriding vetoes and last did so in 1980 despite Democrats holding supermajorities for most of the past decade.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/11/2198591/-California-governor-signs-bills-reforming-local-redistricting-but-vetoes-some-that-would-go-further?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_7&pm_medium=web

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