For further information about this process, here are two opeds I have written:
The Wrong Kind of Latinos?
Every election cycle, voters choose their representatives. Every ten years, however, politicians choose their voters via a process known as redistricting. By way of redistricting, political boundaries are redrawn to ensure that each district has equal population and that the voting power of communities of interest are preserved and enhanced. This is in contrast to gerrymandering, whereby communities are carved up to favor and ensure certain political outcomes at the expense of a community’s voting power.
California and Santa Barbara county are unique, having established redistricting commissions comprised of politically impartial citizens (theoretically speaking!) to draw district lines. The state commission draws the boundaries of congressional, state assembly, and senate districts. The county redistricting commission draws the boundaries of Santa Barbara county’s five supervisor’s districts. Cities are on their own.
Unfortunately, thus far, both of the citizen committees have appeared less than impartial. As it relates to the state commission, they appear to be eliminating republican-held districts which were few and far between to begin with. Our local county commission has allowed certain members to quit the applicant pool, and even quit the commission, only to be allowed to come back for no other reason than because they are democrats. That is, as it pertains to openings on the commission, democrats fill any openings rather than minority applicants who, gasp, happen to be republican!
It appears our congressional district will include the city of Ventura in the future while it loses the northern parts of SLO county. There will also be big changes in both the assembly and senate districts too, if current visualizations are finalized. The new assembly district that includes Santa Barbara would no longer dip into Ventura county, but it will reach into southern San Luis Obispo County. The Central Coast’s senate district will stretch from Point Mugu into San Luis Obispo county. You can observe the proposals and comment at https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/
With respect to the county redistricting effort, far left activists have put forth a map they have titled “United Communities” (UC). Talk about false advertising! It splits the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, Lompoc and Santa Maria! It also violates one of the core principles of the laws which govern the redistricting process known as “packing”. The UC map “packs” the 5th District, comprised of Santa Maria and Guadalupe, with a whopping 83% Latino population and a 79.7% Latino voting-age population, as if these communities lack Latino representation. Yet, the Santa Maria city council is comprised entirely of Latinos! Unfortunately, the far left activists have publicly stated, more than once, that they are the wrong type of Latinos being that they tend to be a rather conservative bunch!
Moreover, the UC map pairs a carved-out portion of the City of Lompoc with Isla Vista and UCSB. These communities have absolutely nothing in common with one another. Lompoc is a relatively poor city comprised of permanent resident families trying to pay rent and find better paying jobs. The students of UCSB, on the other hand, are unmarried, temporary residents who come from some of the wealthiest families in CA. They will singularly earn more upon graduation than the average family in Lompoc. Any map that includes IV and UCSB with any north county community is a product of political machinations, read that, gerrymandering!
Fair maps, based on community, rather than political, interests, have been submitted by the non-partisan County Taxpayers and the California Center for Public Policy. The City of Santa Maria is supporting another good map that creates two solid Latino majority districts and it keeps whole, as much as is practical, all cities, thereby comporting with the law. It pairs Lompoc and Goleta together in the county’s swing (3rd) district, giving them the political representation they need and deserve, based on genuine, true and lasting commonalities.
Andy Caldwell
Can This Train Wreck Be Salvaged?
The Santa Barbara County independent redistricting commission has been a train wreck. To begin with, the federal government was tardy in updating the census which is the starting point in drawing new political districts as equal in population as is possible. This threw the commission into a time crunch.
The commission was to be comprised of politically independent members who would receive redistricting maps submitted by the public instead of letting self-serving politicians draw their own districts. However, democratic party activists somehow convinced the commissioners to only fill vacancies on the commission, of which there were several, with democrats. This, at the expense of filling the vacancies with Latinos because the remaining Latinos in the applicant pool were republican. Hence, the “independent” commission is primarily comprised of white registered democrats which is not representative of county demographics.
The contractor guiding the commission and the public is the National Demographics Corporation (NDC), which has become a source of wasted effort and time. NDC referenced redistricting mapping software programs the public could use to draw and analyze their maps. The only one that was easy to use was called DistrictR. As the deadline to submit maps was approaching, the commission and NDC announced that DistrictR had not updated its program with the current census numbers, yet maps were due anyway! Eventually, everyone who submitted a map on time eventually had to start all over while the commission subsequently extended the deadline for submissions.
When the commission began reviewing the final maps, I noticed that the map I submitted had different numbers than what was submitted as it relates to the number of Latino residents of voting age in each district. This is critical, because the two primary legal requirements of redistricting are equal population based on current census numbers (NDC and DistrictR’s first big mistake) and, per the requirements of the Federal Voting Rights Act, every jurisdiction should place a majority of voting age citizen Latinos in as many districts as possible, sans “packing” (a technical term) a super-majority into one district at the expense of an optimally equitable distribution of Latinos across multiple districts.
That brings us to NDC’s second big mistake. After everyone had submitted their maps (for the second time) and the final deadline to submit maps had passed, NDC made the announcement that DistrictR had not included the Latinos who were citizens of voting age in its mapping software. Hence, this second federal criteria for legally evaluating the maps was skewed by no fault of the citizens who submitted the maps in good faith based on the information and direction of the commission and NDC.
Unfortunately, the commission believes it does not have the time to give the members of the public additional time to draw their maps for a third time! Hence, several members of the public have been technically and theoretically shut out of the competition because their maps fail to achieve any Latino citizen majority voting districts because the information they relied on, which was provided by DistrictR, was faulty. Hopefully, the commission will update at least some maps that were submitted in good faith so that they are still in the running.
The county of Santa Barbara should void any payment due DistrictR for twice failing to produce the material support this process warranted. And, the county should consider docking monies owed to NDC, as well, because this company was caught off guard twice when it really mattered.
Finally, let’s hope the commission is fair in its dealings with both UCSB and Isla Vista and the North County by not placing these strange bedfellows in the same district, as that is a violation of a third tenet of redistricting having to do with preserving communities of like interests.
Andy Caldwell
