The Issue

Gerrymandering is one of the ways that Republicans have managed to stay in power, even though a majority of Americans find their politics distasteful. Republicans have never been shy about playing dirty and have long been in favor of drawing political districts with lots of squiggly lines (gerrymandering) to carve out majority power when in reality they are the minority.

Now, since they have figured out that Trump’s policies are so hated by average Americans, they know it’s going to be a blood bath for them in the mid-terms next year. So have they decided to change their policies to actually represent what American’s want? Of course not, these are Republicans we’re talking about.

Instead they are doubling down, taking redistricting to even further extremes. So extreme, that in Texas, where they are trying to gain another 5 Republican seats in the House, the Democratic state house members have fled the state so that the Texas legislature doesn’t have a quorum.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has threatened that if Texas approves their new gerrymandered map, he will hold a special election to put California’s redistricting back in hands of the legislature so that California can make up what Texas is taking away. Currently, California’s districts are determined by a special non-partisan committee, and redistricting is only supposed to be done every ten years after a new census has been taken. Texas is jumping the gun by 5 years and they’ve even admitted they’re not redistricting to be fair.

Having a non-partisan committee draw the maps used to be the right way to do it. It’s something that California voters approved of because the legislatures were getting absolutely silly drawing districts borders. But the mid-term election is the only thing that is going to save our democracy, and therefore it is vitally important that California fights fire with fire. For too long, Democrats have played by the rules while Republicans cheat and tear our democracy apart.

Please contact Governor Newsom, State Senator McGuire, and Assemblymember Rodgers and tell them you support having a special election to put the power to redistrict back in the hands of our Democratic controlled legislature.

Watch Brian Tyler Cohen’s take on this issue.

Who to Contact

The Script

My name is ______ and I live in ________, CA. I am calling/emailing today because I am tired of seeing our country’s democracy being lost because Republicans don’t play by the rules. It is past time to write sternly worded letters. We need to act, and act now! One thing California can do in the wake of Texas and other red states stating that they are going to gerrymander their states is to let California do the same. Our state is the most powerful state in the union. We need to use that power to save the United States of America.