The Supreme Court ruled, and Governor Hair-Gel got his wish.
I didn’t think it would happen, but here we are: the Supreme Court drove the final nail in the coffin of the Congressional Republican conference in the Golden State. By not taking up the Republican and Trump DOJ appeal to the Ninth Circuit ruling upholding Prop 50, they gave presidential hopeful Governor Newsom his pet project victory, and he will get his new Congressional maps. The political conniving of the supermajority Democrats in Sacramento drove through their determined initiative to counter-balance the redistricting in Texas, and Newsom promoted the power grab to “Stop Trump” and “Save our Democracy.”
Never mind that Californians voted for an independent redistricting commission in 2008 so that politicians could not draw their own seats, thus guaranteeing their election. Yet to save democracy, California’s dominant Democratic voter base went along with the plot. Not just any plot, but a selfish ploy for termed-out politicos to continue their foray in California politics. Lo and behold, State Senate President Mark McGuire is running for Congress! The district is tailor-made for him, overlapping so well with his current state senate seat.
No corruption, though – not a smidgeon …
Throughout the drafting process for Prop 50 last year, Republican lawmakers and media personalities repeatedly asked, “Who drew the maps? Who is responsible for the maps?” One well-placed political consultant, Paul Mitchell, drew the maps, then promised that he would not campaign for the initiative.
Sure.
Why would the voters undo their decision to take power from the politicians? California voters are woke on many levels. The “Orange Man Bad” routine triggers them. Trump hatred is easy politics for California Democrats, plus the fact that Trump’s broad coalition, which propelled him into a second term, doesn’t vote when he’s not on the ballot.
And Republicans are in a mess.
Of course, it also doesn’t help that the California Republican Party is weak, barely holding onto what remains, unable and unwilling to raise funds to compete against the massive fundraising machinery of the Democratic dictatorship of Newsom and Co.
I knew that the ballot measure would pass, but I really believed that the federal courts would step in as the necessary corrective. They failed.
This year, five California Republican Congressmen, barring a miracle or a massive demographic shift, will be pushed out of office for good. Congressman Darrell Issa, who left his coastal San Diego County seat in 2018 and jumped into Duncan Hunter Jr’s East County seat in 2020, has contemplated more carpetbagging to Texas. Rep. Kevin Kiley, one of the most vocal reformers in Washington, is still deciding which of the six new districts he should run in, since the new maps split his current district six ways. He’s eliminated two so far, and he may face the less pleasant prospects of challenging another incumbent—Jay Obernolte or Vince Fong—or he will have to step down.
Young Kim and Ken Calvert will have to fight for the same seat, it seems.
Republicans got played, while Democrats play for keeps. Other Republicans, hankering for the genteel bipartisan days of Reagan and Bush, don’t want to dirty their hands with ruining the norms that have “held the country together.” What good are norms when one political party has rescinded all pretense to normalcy?
If we want constitutional norms to remain, partisanship must be the game. Indiana Republicans ignored this reality when they refused to carve out two more Republican Congressional seats. Virginia is now going to plow through four more Democratic seats if the state Supreme Court rules in their favor. Governor DeSantis in Florida needs to squeeze out as many Republican seats as he can come April of this year.
No more games. Republicans cannot afford to lose the House, or we will lose our country. These are trying times, as communists have outright taken over the Democratic Party. They will stop at nothing to steamroll the institutions and norms that make America great.
For Newsom and his conniving comrades, the Prop 50 Gavin-mander was never about fairness or balancing out the political win in Texas. It was about solidifying his standing as a national political operative, a player who can get things done and make things fall in line his way. He’s playing to win the Presidency, and nothing (except Kamala Harris if she announces again) is going to get in his way.
Let’s finish reviewing the dark side of this Newsom-Mander.
First, the California Democratic Party has further solidified its grip on the state. Rural interests, already dismissed by Sacramento, will now face further alienation from the new Democratic Congressmen, including State Senate President Mark McGuire, who clearly had a hand in redistricting the seats so that he could give himself an easy promotion to Congress—precisely the opposite of what voters intended when they supported Prop 14 for an Independent Redistricting Commission in 2008.
Republican Doug LaMalfa passed away in January, and his likely successor will be former state assembly minority leader Jim Gallagher. He will serve five months in the old First Congressional District. It will be sad to see him go, since he served a fellow reformer with Kevin Kiley when they both worked as assemblymen, fighting against Governor Newsom’s unlawful lockdown orders and COVID-19 mandates.
The breakdown of the new map leaves us with four Republicans, and there’s no assurance on the surface that those numbers will hold next term
The California Democratic domination is complete.
Furthermore, Gavin’s meandering political machinations prove that he’s a results-driven fighter that the Democratic Party needs in the aftermath of chaotic clutz Kamala Harris, who squandered $2 billion and partial incumbency to a repeat (fake) felon burdened media-hyped garbage. Newsom is polished with his lies, even if Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent savvily and savagely compared him to “Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken.” Newsom is a serial killer of individual liberties, natural rights, and economic growth, all with a plastic smile, personality, and hairdo. And Democrats like him.
Is there any good news?
Demographic changes are working in the Republicans’ favor. Hispanic voters are moving to the right, standing with the GOP on cultural issues (no DEI, don’t trans the kids) and opposing open borders and illegal immigration. The majority-Hispanic Democratic bastions in Los Angeles County are moving towards Republicans. A Hispanic pastor in the Imperial Valley flipped a state assembly seat to the Republican column for the first time in 30 years.
Second, as the blue states are getting bluer, voters with wealth and wisdom will flee to red states, taking with them the Congressional seats. In 2032, Texas is projected to gain four more seats, Florida two, and the red mountain states of Idaho, Utah, and Arizona will each get one seat. That’s at least nine more Republican Congressmen, right there.
Last of all, the Supreme Court is about to strike down Section Two of the Voting Rights Act, thus removing the requirement for majority-minority districts. The southern states will redo their redistricting, eliminate all the majority-minority forced districts (all Democrat), netting nine seats for the GOP.
Democrats have won the Prop 50 battle, but Republicans are primed to win the congressional districting and political war.
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