Fresno candidate left off redistricting panel

John Ellis
The Fresno Bee
November 19, 2010

Fresno resident Teresa Espana was not among eight people randomly chosen Thursday morning for the state's Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The Green Party member still has a chance to be on the 14-member commission, however. The eight chosen today must pick an additional six members from the remaining 28 finalists by the end of the year. They will then draw political maps for state legislative and congressional districts in the state, which will be in effect for the next 10 years.
The maps must be approved by Aug. 15, 2011.
Espana is one of 36 finalists from a pool of almost 30,000 initial applicants. She has survived several steps that narrowed the pool.
Thursday, state auditor Elaine Howle randomly picked the names of the commission's first eight members. She drew numbered balls from a bingo cage that corresponded to a finalist.

The 36 finalists were divided into three subgroups - 12 Republicans, 12 Democrats and 12 who either decline to state a political party or are members of third parties. Because she is a Green Party member, Espana was in the final subgroup.
Howle first put 12 balls in for the Democratic Party finalists, and chose three. She did the same for the Republican Party. Finally, she drew two names from among the 12 third party and decline to state finalists.
One fact could bode well for Espana as the eight newly appointed commissioners choose the additional six members - no commissioners thus far are from the San Joaquin Valley, and only Espana and San Joaquin Valley resident Michelle DiGuilio-Matz are Valley residents. Both are in the decline-to-state/third party pool.
Of the commission's final six members, two must be chosen from the decline-to-state/third party pool.