Claremont McKenna College
Fellow at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College
PROFILE
Douglas Johnson
Guest
FROM Douglas Johnson
Which Way, L.A.?
Nonpartisan Goals and Political Expectations Elections are supposed to be competitive between political parties, but consider this. In the past 10 years in California, just one out of 53 congressional seats has changed hands, only six of 80 Assembly seats and no seats in the State Senate. That's because the state legislature drew district boundaries to preserve the status quo. Voters decided they'd had enough, and created a citizens commission to draw new lines using the data from this year's census. Eight of 14 commission members have been chosen by a complex process administered by the State Auditor — four Asian Americans, two whites, one Latino and one African American.
Which Way, L.A.?
And Then There Were Eight… California Redistricting Commission Finalists After the census is completed every ten years, new geographical lines are laid out for the Assembly, the Senate, the Board of Equalization—and the Congress. In the past two elections, Californians have voted to take that power away from the legislature so that Republicans and Democrats can’t perpetuate themselves in office. Today, 8 members of the first, independent redistricting commission were chosen.
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