Local leaders are urging voters to reject Proposition 50, the measure that would implement partisan Congressional districts in California.
The No on Prop 50 campaign held a press conference on Wednesday with local elected officials to highlight how the redistricting initiative would impact the Central Valley.
The backstory: Gov. Newsom signed the Election Rigging Response Act into law last month, placing Prop 50 on the ballot in a special election scheduled for Nov. 4.
- The map was presented by Democrats in the Legislature and drawn to push out the GOP from California’s Congressional delegation. Republicans already only make up nine of California’s 52 Congressional representatives.
Zoom in: If voters approve the new districts, communities such as San Jose and Coalinga would be together in the 18th Congressional District and Madera and Stockton would be in the 13th district.
- Clovis would be split three ways under the proposal as part of districts 5, 20 and 21.
- Fresno County would be split six ways under districts 5, 13, 18, 20, 21 and 22.
What they’re saying: Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig, Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni, Clovis City Councilwoman Diane Pearce, Clovis Unified board member Clint Olivier, Clovis Veterans Memorial District CEO Lorenzo Rios, and farmer William Bourdeau joined the No on Prop 50 campaign to speak out against the initiative during a press conference at the Clovis Veterans Memorial District.
- “Proposition 50 continues to cut up the State of California, making it very difficult not only for voters, but just for us to have appropriate representation,” Magsig said.
- Pearce criticized Prop 50 for dismantling the map drawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
- “Instead, Prop 50 would split Clovis into three Congressional districts through a secretive process pushed through by the state Legislature,” Pearce said. “This contrasts with those citizen drawn maps that kept Clovis together in one district. Dividing Clovis between three districts significantly weakens our ability to advocate for critical needs like infrastructure, public safety and economic development. Even worse, when the Legislature was crafting Prop 50’s flawed maps, Clovis had no say in this process. That is unacceptable.”
- Zanoni echoed Pearce, noting the difficulty there will be for him to advocate for Fresno County if it is split six ways.
- “My reasoning is simple: When we split Fresno County up into six Congressional districts, it becomes even more difficult for elected leaders like myself who represent the entirety of Fresno County to have personal contact with them, to get things done here in Fresno that are important to us,” Zanoni said.
- Bourdeau highlighted the importance of having representatives that understand the water issues of the Central Valley, saying it could lead to a national security issue by impacting the nation’s food supply.
- “When you’re taking a partisan power grab in Sacramento and taking power away from the people, that’s not something that I’m going to just stand idly by,” Bourdeau said. “I’m strongly opposed to Proposition 50.”
- Olivier said Democrats already have absolute power in California, considering they have the governor’s office, all statewide elected offices, a supermajority in the Legislature and two Senators sent to Washington D.C.
- “And the joke is that when there are people running for some of these offices, the top two are always from the same side of the aisle,” Olivier said. “That’s what absolute power looks like.”
- Olivier added, “The people of the State of California will show in November that they will see right through this and they will reject it, because it’s a horrible example of one party rule in a one party state where one group of folks has absolute power. And everybody else be damned.”
