CALIFORNIA’S REAL GERRYMANDERS TAKE PLACE AT THE COUNTY

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

Democrats out number Republicans by about 2-1 in Los Angeles County. By almost a million voters.

Republicans contribute about a fourth of the vote – yet manage to elect 40% of the Board of Supervisors in Los Angeles..

In San Diego County Republicans have a slender plurality of the vote (35-34),
Yet somehow manage to win all the seats.

In liberal San Francisco the population is about 32% Chinese-American. But the Board of Supervisors is mostly white guys. The one Chinese American is currently being hounded from office for not living at his registered address.

If there is a case to be made for redistricting reform – why not start where the abuses exist?

Answer – because this would not benefit the Republican effort to eliminate the slender Democratic Majority in the House of Representatives.

The media joins in this conspiracy to wipe out Speaker Pelosi’s majority in an almost inadvertent way. Anything, they argue, that removes the ability of politicians to help themselves is good. Whether it also results in right wing Republicans regaining power is irrelevant.

One can understand this media blindness – it is part of their rules not to take sides between the Democrats and the Republicans (they call it ‘fairness’). But being blind to the partisan implications of Congressional redistricting is no excuse for the total pass given local government in their redistricting.

Bill Cavala was Deputy Director of the Assembly Speaker’s Office of Member Services where he worked for over 30 years.

He attended undergraduate and graduate school in the 1960’s and received a doctorate in political science at UC Berkeley. He taught political science at UC Berkeley during the 1970's while he worked part-time for the State Assembly.

Cavala left teaching at UC Berkeley and went to work for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in 1981 until his tenure as Speaker ended in 1995, and he has worked for his five successors as Speaker up to and including Speaker Fabian Nunez.

Mr. Cavala manages election campaigns for Democratic candidates.