Next big fight:Drawing lines - The Legislature's Democratic tilt may intensify the fracas over redistricting.

Aurelio Rojas
The Sacramento Bee
August 20, 2001

The budget skirmish behind it, the Legislature returns today from its summer recess braced for a monthlong battle with even greater consequences: redistricting.

Unlike the state budget, which required a two-thirds vote and allowed Republicans to salvage some deals, only a simple majority is needed to draw Assembly, Senate and congressional voting lines for the next decade.

Democrats hold commanding majorities in each house of the Legislature. Assuming Democratic Gov. Gray Davis signs their plans, only the Voting Rights Act is preventing Democrats from turning the GOP elephant into a dinosaur in California.

"Republicans need to recognize that Democrats can pass a redistricting plan without any Republican votes and, frankly, Republican input," said Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga.

But Brulte said he hopes an X-factor will keep Democrats from being "excessively partisan": a two-thirds vote would pre-empt the GOP from challenging the redistricting plans with a ballot referendum.

Moreover, under a two-thirds urgency vote, the new lines would take effect immediately, rather than in January, reducing candidates' uncertainty about where they will file.

"My expectation is we will get a bipartisan redistricting out of the Senate and hopefully the Assembly as well," Brulte said.

The plans must be voted on by Sept. 14 and signed by Davis by Sept. 26, two days before the first filing day for next year's primaries.

More than any legislative act, redistricting determines how candidates fare in elections. By law, the Legislature must use 2000 census data to draw new legislative and congressional districts, factoring in the 4.1 million residents the state gained during the 1990s.

Reconfiguring new districts presents political and legal challenges. Brulte and others say they believe Democrats risk losing some seats if they attempt to "overly maximize" their numbers by shifting too many of their voters into districts now held by the GOP.

Why should Democrats be greedy, some observers ask, when they already hold 50 of the 80 seats in the Assembly and 26 of the 40 seats in the Senate?

But redistricting is rarely a bloodless process. With Republicans reduced to spectator status, internecine battles are already cropping up among Democrats.

While protecting incumbency has long been the Holy Grail of redistricting, term limits will be a factor for the first time. And many legislators are said to be more interested in the configuration of the district they see as their next stepping stone.

Race - as always - figures to complicate matters. Groups representing Latinos and Asian Americans, the state's fastest-growing ethnic groups, have already introduced maps that would increase their political clout.

"A compromise makes sense if Democrats can round up the two-thirds vote to head off a referendum," said Alan Clayton, who represents the California Latino Redistricting Coalition. "But we would never accept a plan that reduces the ability of Latinos to elect candidates of their choice."

Statewide, the Latino population soared by 43 percent in the 1990s. Latinos now make up 31 percent of California's population.

Drawing congressional districts, nearly everyone agrees, promises to be even more fractious and could pit the goals of national Democratic Party officials against state operatives.

Thirty-two of the 52 members in California congressional delegation are Democrats, but Republicans hold a six-seat advantage in the House.

California will be among the last states to redistrict. By the time the Legislature nears a decision, the GOP is expected to have strengthened its position in such states as Pennsylvania and Texas - putting pressure on California Democrats to help offset those losses.

"The question for Democrats is, do they try to squeeze out one, two or three more seats in California?" Clayton said. "That should be fascinating."

Tension between liberal and moderate Democrats is already spilling out in public.

Earlier this month, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a moderate Democrat from Antioch, charged that state allies of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco liberal, were threatening to weaken her district in retribution for her decision to back Pelosi's opponent in the race for party whip.

State Senate Majority Leader John Burton, D-San Francisco, whom Tauscher singled out, has denied the allegation.

Because of the electricity crisis and budget impasse, legislators are just now focusing their attention on redistricting.

Assembly and Senate redistricting committee hearings around the state drew sparse crowds, and proposed maps were introduced by only two groups: the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting.

But the real work will be done behind closed doors. Before the summer break, Democratic consultants dropped by Senate offices to display some maps. Responses were mixed, insiders said.

Senate Democrats, ironically, have not extended the same courtesy to Assembly Democrats - although the party is playing down the significance of the slight.

"I'm not aware that we have seen any kind of full maps from the Senate (redistricting) committee," said Kam Kawata, a spokesman for the Assembly Democrats. "But I would not say there's friction. What I would say is that we're busy working on our proposals and we're not to the point where we're ready to exchange maps."

The most closely watched decision is where legislators will carve out the state's new 53rd congressional district.

The fast-growing area of San Bernardino and Riverside counties in Southern California has emerged as a front-runner.

But the plan proposed by MALDEF in conjunction with the William C. Velasquez Institute would place the new congressional district in the San Joaquin Valley, including most of Tulare County and the city of Fresno.

The plan leaves intact congressional districts in Los Angeles County that have historically been represented by African Americans.

The plan presented by the Asian American group does not include congressional districts. But it does reconfigure more than a dozen Assembly districts across the state to give Asian American candidates a better chance of getting elected.

Those areas include San Francisco, Oakland, Cupertino, San Jose, Los Angeles and central Orange County.

The plans that emerge from the Legislature must receive the governor's approval and pass legal reviews. During the past three redistricting sessions, all plans have run into hurdles.

In the 1970s, the courts drew the plans. In the 1980s, the plans were approved by a referendum. And in the 1990s, the plans were again approved by the courts.

This year, Republicans appear ready to settle for the status quo.

"Given that Senate Democrats have 26 votes and they only need 21 to pass a plan, I think if we were able to protect 20 congressional seats, we would consider that a victory," Brulte said.