Democrats set for redistricting - NEW ERA: Majority party might not need to change lines too much to maintain lead.

Steve Lawrence
Ventura County Star
December 30, 2000

SACRAMENTO -- For Democrats controlling the politically potent process of drawing new legislative districts in 2001 may be a little like winning a New Year's Eve party prize you already got for Christmas.

Democrats won so many seats on Nov. 7 that they may not be able -- or want to try -- to get many more by the way they draw new Senate and Assembly districts.

"It would be hard to imagine drawing lines that would be a whole lot more beneficial" says the chairman of the Assembly elections committee Assemblyman John Longville D-Rialto.

Voters handed Democrats four more seats in the Assembly and one more in the Senate giving them 50 of the 80 Assembly seats and 26 of the Senate's 40 seats -- their biggest majorities since the mid-1980s.

Instead of a purely partisan fight redistricting could become more of a political free-for-all with term-limited lawmakers of both parties trying to fashion districts for themselves in the other house or in Congress.

"It's going to make negotiating a lot more complex because people are going to be interested in seats they are not currently in" said Bruce Cain director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. "We are in a brave new world."

Lawmakers are required to draw new legislative and congressional districts every 10 years to reflect population changes revealed by the federal census.

Legislators won't be as interested in protecting the seats they have now because they won't have them for very long. That's particularly true for members of the Assembly who can serve no more than three two-year terms. Senators can be elected to two four-year terms.

Democrats could try to pick up additional seats or at least solidify the seats they have by concentrating areas that tend to vote Republican in as few districts as possible.

Democrats are within one Senate seat of the two-thirds majority needed to approve appropriation bills tax increases and emergency legislation. Democrats would need four more seats to get to two-thirds in the Assembly.

New districts could also affect the federal legislators said Tony Quinn a political analyst.

Democrats will try to design the new districts to favor their candidates and could jigger lines to increase their chances of picking up three other districts now held by Republicans: Reps. Doug Ose R-Sacramento Elton Gallegly R-Simi Valley and Steve Horn R-Long Beach Quinn said.