Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County Supervisors Facing Redistricting

Sacramento supervisors face redrawn districts

Published: Tuesday, Apr. 19, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Population growth in Elk Grove and Natomas in the past decade could significantly alter Sacramento County supervisor districts under proposed redistricting plans released Monday, Registrar of Voters Jill LaVine said.
LaVine's office has drawn five proposed district maps with each one containing new boundaries for the five county supervisors.

The Department of Voter Registration and Elections draws new supervisorial districts every 10 years to reflect population changes measured in the census.

Each district should have about the same number of residents. The office had a target of 282,000 residents per district, LaVine said.

Historically, new districts haven't appeared to make much of a difference in elections. In the past 77 years, only three incumbent supervisors have been unseated by a challenger, records show.

But 16 percent population growth in Sacramento County in the past decade will mean some pretty big shifts in the districts, LaVine said.

The most population growth happened in Elk Grove and other parts of southern Sacramento County. As a result, Supervisor Don Nottoli's District 5 has grown so much he will likely lose more than 70,000 residents from his district, by far the most of any supervisor.

He said he's sorry to lose constituents. But he also supports a system that guarantees equal representation.
"It's a bittersweet process," said Nottoli, who is going through his second redistricting since taking office in 1994.

Another growth center was Natomas, which includes Supervisor Phil Serna's District 1. That is the only other district that will lose residents, about 18,000.

Supervisors Jimmie Yee, Susan Peters and Roberta MacGlashan will need to pick up between 17,000 and 38,000 residents in each of their districts.

Peters and MacGlashan will be up for re-election next year, the first supervisors to run under the new maps. Both are Republicans, meaning they will be eager to hold onto to conservative areas in their adjoining districts in the northern part of the county.

Kerri Asbury, chair of the Democratic Party in Sacramento County, said she's encouraged interest groups, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and Latinos, to participate in the redistricting process.

People need to make sure they're properly represented, and not excluded in the name of incumbent protection, she said.

Under the federal Voting Rights Act, elections officials were banned from considering voter registrations when drawing district lines, LaVine said. The office sought to make equal size districts while respecting other geographic, political and community boundaries, she said.

LaVine's office will hold community meetings in the districts starting Wednesday to solicit input on the maps.
The proposed maps are available at sacbee.com/links.

The Board of Supervisors will hold a workshop on the proposed maps July 26. Elections officials will provide supervisors with comments from the community, which may prompt them to ask for revisions before approving a map in August, LaVine said.

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