Redistricting Commission Looks For Members
Would you like to become a member of the Commission that will re-draw California’s legislative districts? People who serve on the Commission will probably work about 30 hours a week for about 8 months and will receive $300 per day, in per diem (expense reimbursement), for their work.
The Commission to do the redistricting was established by Proposition 11, approved by the voters in November of last year. An important goal of the initiative is to have ordinary citizens, not politicians, do the redistricting. So, candidates for the Commission do not need to have professional skills in redistricting. The Commission will hire professionals to do that part of the work.
A lot is at stake in the redistricting process.
Every ten years the US Census Bureau does a re-count of the residents of the nation. Each time the Census Bureau does that, California redraws the district maps for the California members of the US House of Representatives, for the state Senate and Assembly, and for the California Board of Equalization.
In theory, the districts should have roughly the same number of residents. For example, California Assembly District 1 should have roughly the same number of residents as are found in Assembly District 2. But beyond that, the political parties and various ethnic communities and interest groups seek to design districts with populations that will benefit those parties or communities.
For example, the political parties seek to establish districts that have overwhelming numbers of either Democrats or Republicans so as to create safe seats. They succeeded in doing that during the last redistricting. In the House of Representatives, and the State Senate and Assembly, almost no members of those bodies lost a re-election bid to the candidate from the other party in the last 10 years. This makes it really difficult to unseat bad legislators.
Ethnic communities have a lot at stake in redistricting. District maps can be drawn so that no district has a significant number of ethnic minorities. This could make it difficult to elect significant numbers of minorities to legislative office. And that could reduce the chance of passage of legislation of importance to those communities. The same could be true for LGBTI people. We need to make sure these communities are adequately represented among the Commissioners who do the redistricting.
Any registered voter in California may apply to be on this Commission. This is a unique and meaningful opportunity for activists to serve our state.
You can learn more about the Citizen's Redistricting Commission (and apply to become a member of the Commission) at www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov.
Boyce Hinman