Now that a special fall election has been called, expect a flurry of activities in the coming weeks from the campaigns on either side of the redistricting issue.
With only a little more than two months until Election Day, campaigns will be working overtime to convince voters whether they should adopt new partisan congressional maps in California to counter similar mid-decade redistricting efforts proposed in Texas and other red states.
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California’s statewide special election will take place on Nov. 4, and vote-by-mail ballots should be sent to voters by Oct. 6 — a mere six weeks from now. The ballot measure will be labeled Proposition 50.
That means both the campaign that supports Prop 50, which Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing, as well as an anti-Prop 50 campaign backed by megadonor Charles Munger Jr., have their work cut out as both sides make their case to voters.
The Yes on 50 campaign — also known as the Election Rigging Response Act campaign — “is ready for an all out sprint in defense of our democracy, and Democrats in California and across the country are united, energized and ready to do what’s necessary to stop (President Donald) Trump’s power grab,” campaign spokesperson Hannah Milgrom said in a statement.
As of Friday, Aug. 22, more than 250,000 people had made small-dollar donations totaling more than $9 million in support of the redistricting effort, according to Milgrom. She said $1.8 million was raised just on Thursday, when the California Legislature passed legislation, which Newsom immediately signed, calling for the special election.
“Prop 50 is the country’s best hope to counter Trump’s Texas power grab and ensure a fair 2026 national midterm election, and Americans who love democracy are counting on California to act,” Milgrom said.
In the Texas Legislature, Republicans passed their own gerrymandered maps as well. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will “swiftly” sign the redistricting legislation there.
California’s proposed maps create several domino-effect changes in the effort to reduce the number of the state’s 52 congressional seats where registered Republican voters have the advantage from nine to four.
Meanwhile, an anti-gerrymandering campaign funded by Munger — who spent over $12 million in 2010 supporting a reform effort that led to California adopting an independent commission in charge of redistricting — has signaled plans to wage its own expensive campaign to defeat Prop 50.
Amy Thoma Tan, spokesperson for the No on Prop 50 – Protect Voters First Act campaign, said Munger has indicated that he intends to “vigorously defend his reform.”
“We’ll have the resources to make sure people understand why gerrymandering is anti-democratic,” Thoma Tan said. “We believe that people should be picking their politicians. The politicians shouldn’t be picking their voters.”
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working with another group, the Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab campaign, to also defeat Prop 50.
On Thursday, the chair of that group, Jessica Millan Patterson, denounced Democrats’ gerrymandered maps as a “power grab.”
“Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab will work tirelessly until the last vote is cast to defeat Newsom’s costly special election and keep power where it belongs—with the people, not the politicians,” she said.
This fall, California voters will decide whether to adopt gerrymandered congressional maps designed to help Democrats pick up another five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Newsom and other Democrats say they’re only supporting this to counter a similar gerrymandering effort in Texas, or possibly other red states, to ensure Republicans retain control of the House. They’ve framed this as a fight to preserve democracy against Trump, who they’ve accused of pushing for a “rigged” election in order to cling to power.
But critics have accused Democrats of also rigging the election if California goes through with mid-decade redistricting.
Thoma Tan said the Protect Voters First Act coalition believes that the mid-decade redistricting efforts in Texas and California are both improper.
The campaign plans to center its messaging around the idea that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“There’s been a lot of talk about saving democracy. We also really believe in democracy,” Thoma Tan said. “We just don’t believe the way to save it is by burning it down in your own state. The people (in California) very clearly have said that they want the independent commission to be the one drawing the districts. We believe that’s where that power should lie.”
Already, some California voters have received mailers that say they are from Munger’s group. “Vote no in the special election,” the mailers say in bold red lettering. “Let’s protect California’s independent redistricting process.”
Beyond actual fundraising, both campaigns are also getting support — directly or indirectly — from some high-profile individuals.
In recent days, former President Barack Obama and Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey threw support behind California Democrats’ mid-cycle redistricting proposal.
Meanwhile, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, largely viewed as a moderate Republican, has spoken out against gerrymandered maps. Schwarzenegger, while governor, was instrumental in pushing for California’s reform effort in 2008 that led to the state’s independent redistricting commission.
