REDISTRICTING: Republican opponents turn in signatures
Republicans who say the state’s new voting district boundaries are unfair got 79,600 Inland-area names
BY JIM MILLER
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
Riverside Press Enterprise
Published: 14 November 2011 07:18 PM
SACRAMENTO — A Republican-led campaign to overturn the state’s redrawn Senate map said almost 711,000 voter signatures have been submitted on petitions to put the maps before voters next year.
The petition deadline was Sunday.
Organizers need 504,760 valid voter signatures to qualify a ballot measure to scrap the Senate plan crafted by the voter-approved Citizens Redistricting Commission.
That would suspend the maps and trigger the California Supreme Court’s involvement, with a possible redraw in time for the 2012 elections.
About 31,600 of the signatures came from Riverside County voters and 48,000 came from San Bernardino County, according to county elections officials, citing figures from the Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting campaign.
“It was a tight deadline. We collected as many signatures as we could,” said Andre Levesque, a campaign spokesman. “We’re confident we’ll get there on a full count.”
Republican critics say the Senate maps approved in August are unfair to some parts of the state, such as San Bernardino County. The county of about 2 million people is broken up among six Senate districts of roughly 931,000 people apiece.
But the top concern of the maps’ GOP opponents is that the plan gives Democrats a strong chance of reaching a two-thirds majority in the state Senate in 2012, allowing them to bypass Republicans on every issue, including taxes. It’s considered unlikely, however, that Assembly Democrats would pick up the seats needed to achieve a two-thirds majority in the lower house.
As of last weekend, the California Republican Party had contributed $1.7 million to the referendum effort. Another $420,000 has come from other GOP donors. The money paid for signature bounties and to mail petitions directly to GOP voters to meet a tight 90-day deadline to turn in signatures.
“San Bernardino County got split up six ways. I thought that was wrong,” said Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, who provided $50,000 to the campaign, according to state reports.
Dutton and others say the Senate map also may violate the federal Voting Rights Act because it failed to create enough districts that could be won by representatives of the state’s fast-growing Latino population.
Steven Ochoa, the national redistricting coordinator of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the organization is still reviewing the maps and has not made any decision about a court challenge.
The California Supreme Court last month declined to hear lawsuits challenging the Senate maps.
County election officials have eight working days to count the number of signatures submitted. Then they will do a random sample to determine if there are enough valid signatures — 555,236 — to qualify the measure immediately.
That seems unlikely in this case. In five recent past initiatives, the average signature-validity rate was 75.5 percent. Under that rate, about 537,000 of the signatures turned in by Senate map opponents would be valid. That would trigger a complete count.
If a random sample revealed a validity rate of only 67 percent or so, the referendum would fail.
The petition deadline was Sunday.
Organizers need 504,760 valid voter signatures to qualify a ballot measure to scrap the Senate plan crafted by the voter-approved Citizens Redistricting Commission.
That would suspend the maps and trigger the California Supreme Court’s involvement, with a possible redraw in time for the 2012 elections.
About 31,600 of the signatures came from Riverside County voters and 48,000 came from San Bernardino County, according to county elections officials, citing figures from the Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting campaign.
“It was a tight deadline. We collected as many signatures as we could,” said Andre Levesque, a campaign spokesman. “We’re confident we’ll get there on a full count.”
Republican critics say the Senate maps approved in August are unfair to some parts of the state, such as San Bernardino County. The county of about 2 million people is broken up among six Senate districts of roughly 931,000 people apiece.
But the top concern of the maps’ GOP opponents is that the plan gives Democrats a strong chance of reaching a two-thirds majority in the state Senate in 2012, allowing them to bypass Republicans on every issue, including taxes. It’s considered unlikely, however, that Assembly Democrats would pick up the seats needed to achieve a two-thirds majority in the lower house.
As of last weekend, the California Republican Party had contributed $1.7 million to the referendum effort. Another $420,000 has come from other GOP donors. The money paid for signature bounties and to mail petitions directly to GOP voters to meet a tight 90-day deadline to turn in signatures.
“San Bernardino County got split up six ways. I thought that was wrong,” said Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, who provided $50,000 to the campaign, according to state reports.
LATINOS LEFT OUT?
Dutton and others say the Senate map also may violate the federal Voting Rights Act because it failed to create enough districts that could be won by representatives of the state’s fast-growing Latino population.
Steven Ochoa, the national redistricting coordinator of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the organization is still reviewing the maps and has not made any decision about a court challenge.
The California Supreme Court last month declined to hear lawsuits challenging the Senate maps.
County election officials have eight working days to count the number of signatures submitted. Then they will do a random sample to determine if there are enough valid signatures — 555,236 — to qualify the measure immediately.
That seems unlikely in this case. In five recent past initiatives, the average signature-validity rate was 75.5 percent. Under that rate, about 537,000 of the signatures turned in by Senate map opponents would be valid. That would trigger a complete count.
If a random sample revealed a validity rate of only 67 percent or so, the referendum would fail.
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