Democrats Used Underhanded Tactics in Redistricting California

On Wednesday, ProPublica published a startling article that meticulously details how California Democrats systematically and repeatedly fooled the bipartisan California Citizens Redistricting Commission into creating districts that wildly favored Democrats. The new map is expected to cost the GOP several seats.

Here is the article’s money shot.

In the weeks that followed, party leaders came up with a plan. Working with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — a national arm of the party that provides money and support to Democratic candidates — members were told to begin “strategizing about potential future district lines,” according to another email.

The citizens’ commission had pledged to create districts based on testimony from the communities themselves, not from parties or statewide political players. To get around that, Democrats surreptitiously enlisted local voters, elected officials, labor unions and community groups to testify in support of configurations that coincided with the party’s interests.

When they appeared before the commission, those groups identified themselves as ordinary Californians and did not disclose their ties to the party. One woman who purported to represent the Asian community of the San Gabriel Valley was actually a lobbyist who grew up in rural Idaho, and lives in Sacramento.

In one instance, party operatives invented a local group to advocate for the Democrats’ map.

The article is long, but it’s exceptionally researched and worth reading through to the end, if only to see how deep the schemes ran, and how aware the Dems were of the impropriety of their actions.

The GOP, of course, is calling foul, and some of its members are attempting to have the newly-drawn congressional map thrown out.

Democrats fooled redistricting commission