REDISTRICT PLAN SIGNED - COURT CHALLENGES LIKELY

Andrew Lamar
Contra Costa Times
September 28, 2001

SACRAMENTO Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation on Thursday setting the state's new political boundaries, even as Latino and Asian-American activists vowed they would challenge it in court.

Davis praised the bipartisan effort to develop the redistricting plan and the diversity of the committees that worked on it.

"No plan is perfect, but the maps produced this year are fair and balanced," Davis said.

State lawmakers are required to redraw the legislative boundaries for California's Assembly, state Senate, congressional and Board of Equalization districts once every 10 years to reflect population changes reported in the U.S. census.

Although the plan makes Republican and Democratic leaders happy, it irks the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Those two groups have said the redistricting plan dilutes the influence of the growing number of Mexican-Americans and Asian-Americans in California, and both threatened to sue if the plan was signed into law.

Some lawmakers have complained that the plan limits competition by creating safe seats for Republicans and Democrats.

One of the principal authors of the new plan, Sen. Don Perata, D-Alameda, said he was happy the governor signed the measure and the process is concluded. "And although not every individual was able to be accommodated exactly as they may have preferred, it's a solid plan that meets constitutional requirements even better than what the special masters did 10 years ago," Perata said.

"Having survived the redistricting process, I do understand now why our forebears limited it to once every 10 years."