Redistricting

Malcolm Maclachlan
July 15, 2010

Redistricting is hard. That was the conclusion I quickly came to during my April visit to the Statewide Database & Election Administration Research Center at UC Berkeley. This center maintains all the maps, computers, software and data needed to redistrict every legislative office in the state.

But as I tried to work with the software, I decided I probably don’t have the expertise to be on the Citizens Redistricting Panel, authorized by last year’s Proposition 11 and currently being selected by the State Auditor’s office.
Districts need to be of such an exact size - no different than about 130 people as determined by the latest Census data - that it seems nearly impossible to keep cities and neighborhoods together while creating competitive seats and
balancing all the demands of various interest groups and ethnic communities.

I chose to work with just a few Assembly Districts around Sacramento, essentially looking at the borders of AD 5 (currently represented by Roger Niello, R-Sacramento), AD 9 (Dave Jones, D-Sacramento) and AD 10 (Alyson Huber, D-Lodi). With so many variables at play, one finds yourself focusing more and more on one particular goal. In this case, I started looking at how I could make AD 9 center around Sacramento, and how I could tip the closely divided AD 5 and AD 10 to one side or the other.
In an upcoming feature on this page, I’ll go through some work the folks at the Statewide Database did, drawing practice districts with various goals in mind. The odd thing was, when the factors noted above that people think are important are taken into account, it’s pretty easy to come up with a map that looks like our current districts.

Thanks to Karin McDonald, director of the statewide database, for setting up my visit, and to geographic information analyst Nicole Boyle who took an entire afternoon off to patiently walk me through the process.

[Caption – Picture 1] My incomplete redrawing of AD 9. I tried to make the district more closely conform to the actual city limits of Sacramento. But like a lot of cities, especially ones that have grown rapidly in recent decades, the city limits of Sacramento can differ greatly from how residents actually think of the city. For instance, urban, minority-heavy Oak Park lies outside the city limits, while more distant, sparsely populated and racially homogenous areas north of town are in the city. Though if you’re trying to tip Niello’s AD 5 into the Democratic column, these bits of urban non- Sacramento could be very useful. Likewise, putting more off this area into AD 9 and taking some of the northern parts of could help keep a Republican in AD 5.

[Caption – Picture 2] This view shows a big swath of the Bay Area and points inland, with AD 15 (Joan Buchanan, D-San Ramon) highlighted. The pie charts show both population and party registration, with the traditional blue for Democrats and Red for Republicans. This map helps show how denser urban areas lean left and more rural ones lean right - an effect made even more stark by the serious elevation and climate lines that physically divide the region.

[Caption – Picture3] A section of Huber’s AD 10. When it comes to putting the finishing touches on a district, you can find yourself moving around parcels and just a couple hundred people - which in turn affects the entire state map by moving people from one district to another. Like many people, I’ve long been troubled by oddly-shaped districts that look like animals or a Rorschach test. But when you start actually trying to make square, rectangular or circular districts, you find it’s nearly impossible. The mere nature of the process starts to produce some weird shapes like the gaps you can see in this image.

Go to page B3 to read the article and see the pictures in Capitol Weekly.