Prop 50: Newsom’s $300 Million Heist
Dear John,
Gov. Gavin Newsom just pulled off a political heist in broad daylight — and California Republican and independent voters are feeling mugged. While headlines are still blaring about thieves looting the Louvre in just seven minutes, Newsom and his crew managed their own smash-and-grab: ramming an initiative onto the ballot and passing Prop 50 in about ten weeks.
How did he do it? No mystery there. A Democrat-dominated Legislature rushed through the legislation authorizing the special election, Democratic consultants drew and paid for new congressional maps, and public sector unions helped fund and fuel the get-out-the-vote campaign. Indeed, government unions supplied about $28 million — roughly one in every six dollars — of the $163.3 million in contributions of $50,000 and greater to the Yes on 50 campaign.
State judges played along. When advised that Proposition 50 violated multiple state laws, the state Supreme Court simply looked the other way. In one legal complaint, a group of Republicans noted that, in placing the initiative on the ballot after just three days of consideration — from August 18 to August 21 — the legislature violated the public’s right to 30 days’ notice before voting on new bills; a second observed that the initiative violated the state’s single-issue rule — because it called not just for dumping the state’s independent redistricting commission, but also (ironically) called for a federal law that would impose those same independent redistricting commissions in all states. But the state’s highest court, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, dismissed both.
Newsom had the audacity to call Prop 50 “democracy in action.” In truth, it detonated the independent Citizens Redistricting Commission that determined California congressional districts, which voters approved through Proposition 20 in 2010. California has more registered Republicans than any other state, but Newsom's new maps twist districts into partisan pretzels to overwhelm Republican strongholds.
To better understand the impact of Prop 50’s gerrymandering, we asked the policy experts at the California Policy Center to weigh in.
Lance Christensen, CPC Vice President of Government Affairs
"With all the talk of 'saving democracy' coming out of the Governor's office during the last few months, something needs to be said about the California Republic that Proposition 50's passage is seeking to undermine. Yes, gerrymandering districts to intentionally diminish Republicans' seats by 5 or more is egregious and petty. While the conversation may be focused on why an estimated 4 million Republicans didn't show up to vote at all, what is lost in the conversation is how this impacts minority parties and independent voters who have rejected the partisan labels altogether.
Why should non-Democratic voters participate at all if their voice is further silenced by this craven power play?"
John Moorlach, former State Senator and Orange County Supervisor, Director of CPC’s Center for Public Accountability, as quoted in the Orange County Register
“It was a shrewd political move by Newsom and his Democratic consultants. It was obviously something planned many months ago and it was executed amazingly well.
The disingenuous component of this clever maneuver is that the Democrats embraced redistricting commissions. But, they discarded the concept for petty political purposes. And the spoils go to those who have no principles."
Mari Barke, Director, California Local Elected Officials
"Prop 50 highlights the critical need to address 'one-party rule' in California. Without a legislative supermajority, this proposition might not have made it to the ballot, and we would have a better chance of preventing the passage of dangerous bills in the legislature."
Marc Joffe, CPC Visiting Fellow
"Proposition 50 opponents faced an insurmountable challenge: voters viewed redistricting in purely partisan terms and since California remains a deep blue state, the outcome was inescapable. Although many on the opposition side tried to frame the issue as one of good governance, that framing fell flat with voters anxious to get even with Texas for doing its own mid-decade gerrymandering.
But California voters can make the right decision on ballot measures that are less partisan. Last year, voters overwhelmingly decided to make petty crime illegal again by ratifying Proposition 36 and defended the requirement for two-thirds approval of new municipal capital spending projects by rejecting Proposition 5.
Consider Tuesday’s results in Santa Clara County, where a tax hike supported by Democratic officials won, but fell more than 14 points short of Proposition 50. This gap means that about one in seven voters in this very blue county think independently of their preferred party’s elite. In some election years, that sliver can be the difference between victory and defeat at the ballot box."
Will Swaim, CPC's CEO
"Millions of Californians have apparently decided that silencing the voices and the votes of their neighbors is a sacrifice they're willing to make in their battle against President Trump."
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So what’s next? The fight for California’s future continues. We invite those who refuse to give up on the once-Golden State to join our efforts to build coalitions across California, through California Local Elected Officials (CLEO), CPC’s Parent Union, our Center for Public Accountability, and CPC’s California Justice Center.
To support this vital work, please consider joining CLEO or Parent Union as well as making a donation of any amount to CPC today.
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