Caucuses were briefed. Polls are being shared. And the push to swing California bluer is taking shape.
California’s Texas-thwarting gerrymander has swiftly transformed from fantasy to reality.
Democrats in the House and the state Legislature are coalescing around a plan to draw a half-dozen Republican incumbents into oblivion — and persuade California voters to approve the new congressional maps before next year’s midterms. Party leaders are closely tracking the dual-track developments in which lawmakers in Texas and California are moving, in partisan parallel, to shore up their respective party’s House majorities. California Republicans are casting about for a way to avoid extinction.
It all points to a high-stakes, big-dollar brawl thrusting California to the center of the political universe.
It sucks that this is where we’re at, but I’m glad California is stepping up and doing this. Republicans constantly play outside the rules to win. Democrats always try to take the high road and end up losing big.
Ultimately, meeting Republicans at the bottom is the only way to possibly see real change. Maybe eventually courts go “ok this sucks for everyone, not just for Democrats, so we have to actually fix it.” But as long as gerrymandering is more beneficial to the right, that’ll never happen.
Cheating helps the cheater until it just changes the rules for everybody.
And it’s never fun for anybody involved.
Be the one to ruin it for everyone else.