One item on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
’s State of the State speech reform list that will be noticed in
Morgan Hill is redistricting, otherwise known as
gerrymandering.
One item on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s State of the State speech reform list that will be noticed in Morgan Hill is redistricting, otherwise known as gerrymandering.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, said later that he hadn’t heard from the voters on this issue. Others in state government have heard from Morgan Hill.
The City Council proclaimed its dismay with its new electoral districts, drawn after the 2000 census, to separate the town from neighboring areas with similar demographics and interests and lumped it in with the rural Central Valley and Santa Maria. The City Council even pursued the matter in a lawsuit that ended when the state Supreme Court declined to accept the case.
Morgan Hill is in the 11th Congressional District, represented by Richard Pombo, R-Stockton. The district covers primarily Central Valley towns, north to Lodi and only takes in Morgan Hill at the district’s edge. San Martin, Gilroy and San Jose are not part of the district.
The town is paired with San Martin in the 15th State Senate District, represented by newly elected Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria. District 15 includes parts of the counties of Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo, the southeast portion of Santa Clara County (including Morgan Hill and San Martin but not Gilroy) and the northern portion of Santa Barbara County.
The 21st state Assembly District, represented by John Laird, D-Santa Cruz also includes San Martin but not Gilroy. When he was first elected, in November 2002, Laird said he commiserated with Morgan Hill voters in their objection to being represented by people who do not live anywhere near them. Pombo lives in Tracy and Maldonado in Santa Maria.
Laird also said he would willingly give up Morgan Hill so it could be in a district of like interests and needs, though, he stressed at the time and has stressed since, that he enjoys representing the town.
The governor proposed that a panel of retired judges draw district boundaries, which include that for Congress and state Senate and Assembly. He said they are currently drawn by legislators to protect their districts and, indeed, in the Nov. 2 election, no incumbent lost his or her seat to an opponent, so careful was the distribution of Republican or Democratic voters.
However, instead of waiting until the 2010 census, when the next redistricting is due, Schwarzenegger wants it done now and is prepared to go to the voters this fall if the Legislature doesn’t agree. The issue of whether it is legal to redraw districts more often than after every census is currently working its way through the Texas courts.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy, a veteran of the redistricting wars, said he would sign up for the governor’s redistricting plans and, in fact, he already has.
“I’m part of a statewide group working on reforming the redistricting process,” Kennedy said.
