Redistricting promised change, delivered same old bias

Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) - Thursday, September 1, 2011
Craig Huey

Broken promises. Politics as usual. 

This best describes the final district boundaries drawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. 

And these flawed, politically biased districts will last 10 years. 

The result: uncompetitive races, incumbents who never lose, districts that divide cities and boundaries that make no sense, especially from the viewpoint of the "communities of interest" criteria specified by voters. 

For example, Torrance, in the new congressional district boundaries, is now divided in two, diminishing its importance to politicians. And El Segundo is no longer with the other Beach Cities in Assembly representation, a plan that will ignore the city's unique interests. 

At every turn since the release of new maps for congressional, Assembly, state Senate and Board of Equalization districts, the process has been shrouded in secrecy and double-dealing. Input from South Bay residents was simply ignored. 

Voters had decided the corrupt policy of legislators drawing their own boundaries, which created gerrymandered districts designed to be safe for the party in power, had to go. They hoped an "independent" commission would provide change for the better. But that didn't happen. 

Consider what the commission has done to what was the South Bay's 36th Congressional District: Torrance is carved in two. The cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula are in, as they should be. But Lomita is now in a new district - with zero connection to the rest of the South Bay. San Pedro, Harbor City and Wilmington got yanked out, too, as if they're not part of the South Bay at all. 

Yet while the new gerrymandered district leaves out South Bay cities, it marches up into Los Angeles, all the way to the Ventura County line. Santa Monica, Malibu, Beverly Hills and Agoura - in the San Fernando Valley - are added! We have Hollywood, too. 

The commission used Dockweiler Beach - where no one lives - to make the new district contiguous. That is the epitome of gerrymandering. 

The same politically based travesties divided up the South Bay's Assembly and state Senate districts, too. 

It happened in other parts of the state as well. Six Senate districts slice back and forth across San Bernardino County and six more crisscross Sacramento County. The former should have three; the latter can be done with two. 

Here's what happened: 

Members lied about their political connections and so-called independent commissioners were drawn from left-of-center backgrounds. Commissioner Gabino T. Aguirre, for example, didn't disclose his political campaign contributions to Democratic candidates or his extensive connections to Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, which appeared before the commission with its own redistricting proposals. Commissioner Jeanne Raya also gave money to a state political action committee, as well as multiple democratic campaigns, state Auditor Elaine Howle found. 

As a result of this false dealing, each new draft of maps tilted the initially competitive layouts more and more toward Democrats. 

California voters have already endured a decade of Democrat gerrymandering of Congressional, Assembly and Senate districts. After those 10 years, we have massive state budget deficits, the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation and businesses closing (or leaving) because of the weight of regulations and taxes. 

We were - we thought - done with the rule of the old system, under which Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, quoted in the Orange County Register in 2001, told colleagues to pony up, "pay their $20,000" and let their handpicked consultant draw lines, so everyone could keep their seats. 

So we voters asked for a free and fair redistricting process, voted on it and finally got a commission. 

And that was stacked with liberal ideologues who solidified the old one-party control of California for the next 10 years. 

Now we can only hope there will be lawsuits and a referendum to draw lines fairly, by the courts, not by politicians, whether overtly or through an allegedly independent political commission. 

Sometimes democracy takes work - over and over and over. 

Don't let them divide your community. 

Don't let them take your vote. 

Demand that they comply with the criteria we voters gave them. 

Craig Huey, a South Bay businessman who recently ran for Congress, is president of LAVoterGuide.com, JudgeVoter 

Guide.com and Peninsula Residents for a Better Community. He can be reached at craig@craighuey.com.