California Democrats on Thursday approved a constitutional amendment that would put a new state congressional map before voters this fall — their effort to retaliate after Texas Republicans approved a new map for their state that is friendlier to their party.
The California Legislature passed the measure by a 30-8 party-line vote in the Senate and a vote of 57-20 in the Assembly. Only one Democrat in the Assembly opposed the constitutional amendment. This sets up a ballot initiative in November that, if approved by voters, would temporarily sidestep the independent commission in charge of congressional maps in California, potentially gaining Democrats five congressional seats in the national redistricting battle.
“The chair of the Texas election committee and the author of the new maps has made it very clear that this is a partisan map that they are doing in order to increase Republican power at the urging of Donald Trump,“ state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon said on the floor before the vote. “This is what this vote is about. Let the voters make the decision, we heard them and we are responding and they are the ultimate judges of whether this is the right way forward.”