California voters oppose Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) plan to redraw congressional districts and gerrymander in favor of Democrats, rather than preserving the existing “independent” commission that draws district maps.
Last week, Newsom announced that he will seek a special election to approve a new partisan map, approved by the Democrat-dominated legislature, that will eliminate at least four of the nine Republican-held seats.
However, a poll of 1,445 registered voters in California by the Citrin Center and Possibility Lab at UC Berkeley and Politico revealed that 64% favor the current system, versus just 36% who want Newsom’s plan.
By nearly a two-to-one margin, voters prefer keeping an independent line-drawing panel to determine the state’s House seats, the latest POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab survey found. Just 36 percent of respondents back returning congressional redistricting authority to state lawmakers.
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California Democrats have also promised not to do away with the state’s independent redistricting commission entirely. Instead, they plan to ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would put new maps approved by the Legislature in effect for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 election cycles, according to legislative sources familiar with the draft measure. The independent panel would then resume its role as the state’s line-drawer after the 2030 census.
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