Newsom’s Prop. 50 would tie coastal cities to desert towns under San Diego maps

Whereas you’re here: On Nov. 4, Californians will choose whether the state ought to gerrymander its congressional areas. Sign up for key upgrades on the uncommon election.

Fredrich Bahrke moved to Lakeside 25 a long time back, baited by the ranch-style homes that dab its open scene and the slower pace of life in the town of 63,000.

“I’ve continuously been an out-in-the-country kind of boy. The country life is more comfortable for me,” Bahrke said.

This parcel of San Diego District, known as East District, is separated by its provincial and urban regions in U.S. House maps. Lakeside sits in differentiate to the county’s eastern, urban center on the edges of Democratic-leaning cities El Cajon and La Mesa.

Rural districts such as Lakeside and Bloom Valley in the 48th House area are spoken to by longtime Republican Congressmember Darrell Issa, whereas the adjacent cities of El Cajon and Lemon Woods are spoken to by Equitable Rep. Sara Jacobs of the 51st Area. Suggestion 50, the November poll degree to briefly draw unused House maps to grant California Democrats an advantage, proposes to connect San Diego’s country and urban East District together in an exertion to debilitate Republican voting control in an range known for its stalwart conservatism.

“I don’t like that they’re changing that and lumping us in the urban areas,” Bahrke, a 65-year-old previous Maritime officer, said. “It’s going to put us in a locale with individuals with exceptionally distinctive sees in our area.”

Republicans drawing modern divided maps in Texas is not the same as California’s endeavor since its state structure permits it to do so, Bahrke said.

Under the proposed maps, the 48th Locale, which Issa presently speaks to, would take on more Latino voters to ended up more competitive in the 2026 midterm races and the taking after two decision cycles. Once the head of the capable House Oversight and Government Change Committee, Issa has spoken to parts of San Diego Province for decades and built a positive notoriety in the GOP for driving a arrangement of examinations of the Obama administration.

Issa has traveled to reelection in the final two decisions, but took a two-year break when he didn’t look for re-election in 2018, after his past locale got to be progressively Democratic.

Merging ideologically unmistakable communities

The Republican-leaning Lakeside is 64% white and has a middle family wage of $103,000 — 14% higher than the $90,000 middle in La Mesa, where almost half the populace is white, concurring to a 2023 San Diego Province report.

Liberal Palm Springs, which would move into the proposed 48th Area, is about 64% white and has a family wage of $69,000, agreeing to a 2023 city report.

Candidates running in the proposed unused locale would likely require to center on reasonableness to request over its provincial and urban districts, agreeing to UC San Diego political researcher Thad Kousser.

“It will make a energetic where a Majority rule candidate will be looking both to capture direct voters, but moreover to galvanize voters in profound blue Palm Springs,” Kousser said.

Cars drive down a two-way street pass a push of shops and businesses in a country community neglecting mountains. A sign that peruses “Lakeside” hangs over the active street.

The Lakeside neighborhood of East District San Diego on Oct. 24, 2025. Recommendation 50 would redraw congressional maps, counting the Republican-leaning zone of Lakeside. Photo by Zoë Meyers for CalMatters

This marriage of ideologically particular communities would be among numerous beneath the proposed gerrymandered maps, such as Northern California’s farther farming towns being tied to parts of the San Francisco Inlet Region.

Some locale would moreover move into entirely distinctive parts of the state. East of San Diego, the locale Republican Rep. Insight Calvert speaks to would move totally exterior of Riverside Province into Los Angeles District, which would deliver Democrats a more than 10 rate point advantage in voter registration.

Calvert, who speaks to the 41st Area, is a 17-term congressmember and one of the longest-serving administrators in Washington. He’s confronted a few of the most competitive races of his political career since the final decennial census redrew his U.S. House situate, which driven to both parties pouring millions of dollars into his final two races. Calvert barely vanquished his Law based rival, previous prosecutor Will Rollins, in 2022 and 2024.

If voters favor Prop. 50, numerous inhabitants right now in Calvert’s locale would move into the 48th Area and Republican-controlled 40th Locale in Orange County.

Tucked absent in the San Jacinto Mountains southwest of Palm Springs, Mary Rider, a resigned community college counselor in Idyllwild, said her bolster for Prop. 50 is a “moral decision.”

She and other Riverside District voters would be moved into the more competitive 48th Area if voters endorse the measure.

“If we have to break a run the show, so to talk, to make beyond any doubt what’s best for everybody happens, we break that rule,” Rider said. She concurs with the contention that Prop. 50 is the as it were way to react to Republicans gerrymandering in Texas and other states.

Districts are ordinarily drawn at the starting of the decade after the U.S. Census. Most state assemblies make their possess congressional maps, but in California, voters affirmed an free redistricting commission of customary citizens to draw the maps. Prop. 50 inquires voters to incidentally suspend the free maps for three cycles in favor of the ones drawn by Democrats.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has said the degree is in reaction to Texas Republicans drawing their claim maps in favor of Republicans ahead of the 2026 races to make it simpler for them to keep up control of the House.

A modest bunch of Law based hopefuls are looking at seats in both locale, counting a open school instructor and a San Diego city councilmember. But all planned candidates, counting deep-seated congressmembers Calvert and Issa, are in limbo until after the November extraordinary election.

So distant, the Yes campaign has raised a whopping $97 million and is supported by star-powered advertisements including the likes of previous President Barack Obama. The No side has drawn in less than half of that, at $42 million.

A message to lawmakers

Nickie Watts of Palm Forsake, sees Prop. 50 as a apparatus to hold Calvert responsible.

“I have never seen him. You don’t truly listen almost him,” said Watts, who says she has lived in Palm Leave for decades. “He’s like an imperceptible human.”

Hundreds of wind turbines seen from a lodging tract along Thruway 111 in Palm Springs on Walk 7, 2022. Photo by George Rose, Getty Images

Calvert, like a lion’s share of GOP individuals over the nation, has went without from doing in-person town corridors where constituents shocked over Republican bolster of President Donald Trump’s arrangements have ended up common.

“Gerrymandering locale since you oppose this idea with the result of an race is legislative issues at its worst,” representative Calvin Moore said of voters supporting Prop. 50 in reaction to Calvert’s record.

Issa has additionally confronted mounting feedback from his constituents for not holding any in-person town corridors this year.

A representative for Issa, Jonathan Wilcox, expelled the thought that constituents disturbed with Issa’s voting record might play a part in Prop. 50 passing.

“I don’t debate that Democrats around the nation are contradicted to the arrangements of the congressman and Republican Party,” he said.

Maree Doden, a 74-year-old previous city representative in Palm Leave, said she is a Democrat but is stressed around the point of reference that endorsing fanatic maps would set. She said Texas gerrymandering its claim maps was not a solid sufficient reason to retaliate.

“I am not a fan of President Trump,” she said. “But this fair felt like you’re taking a handle and you’re presently saying, ‘Let’s dump that prepare and all the work we took in passing it and toss that out the window.’”

Source: https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/10/california-proposition-50-san-diego/

Share on Social Media