Redistricting and San Mateo County

With the redistricting process having come to a close, politicians have been focused on California’s new method of having citizens draw Congressional, State Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization districts. This new process will be debated in the years ahead.   The Commission’s task was to follow the Voting Rights Act by creating majority-minority districts where necessary, meet ethnic benchmarks in four specific counties, and then keep cities, counties and communities of interest whole.  The criteria for communities of interest include ethnic, socio-economic, media markets, transportation corridors, and even religious affiliation and sexual orientation.  What resulted in much of the state were districts that reinforced ideology and partisanship from residential sorting, even though this was criteria that was supposed to be ignored.  In the end, the Commission accomplished its mission.  The new lines may not be perfect, and the Commission has some detractors, but the process was more public, transparent, and honest than in decades past.

The Democrats across the state are celebrating by their overall advantage in this plan.  The Commission lines are not the only cause, as the change in demographics of the state and a GOP, which is looking at its lowest registration numbers, are also factors.  In the last eight years, Republican registration has gone from 35 to 31 percent, while the Democratic registration has held at 44 percent.  The final plan reflects significant gains for minority groups.

Under redistricting, a state Senate seat, largely representing San Mateo County, has been carved out by the Commission, which is great local news. Whereas, prior to the new redistricting map San Mateo County had two Senate districts, but each Senator represented only portions of the county.

San Mateo County has been represented in the Senate by Leland Yee in current District 8, which has 45 percent of its territory in San Francisco, and by Joe Simitian in current District 11, which has over 75 percent of its territory in portions of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

Now, San Mateo County will have one Senate seat almost entirely in our county, new Senate District 13.   This is great from our perspective, as our representative will have the county’s interest in the forefront, rather than being represented by Senate representatives who live elsewhere, which was the case with Senators Yee and Simitian.

It is interesting that based on the new census figures, everyone of San Mateo County’s representatives in Congress, the Senate, and two of the three Assembly representatives (Fiona Ma and Rich Gordon) had the largest population deviations, and thus required the most substantial changes in their districts.

The redistricting will play out for some time, as even-numbered Senators elected in 2010, will keep their seats until 2014, but would, of course, have to run in a new numbered seat in 2014.   Some of the representatives whose terms run to 2014, however, will run early for a new odd numbered seat in 2012 since their 2014 term seat went south with redistricting. San Francisco lost one of its Senate seats to San Joaquin County.  However, San Francisco Senator, Mark Leno, will be able to stay in the Senate until 2014, as he was elected to a four year term. Therefore, both he and Senator Yee will serve until 2014, at which time Senator Leno will run new Senate District 11 and Yee’s district will cease to exist.

You may be aware that Assemblyman Jerry Hill has announced his candidacy for new Senate District 13, an open Senate seat under the new redistricting lines. He will face former Santa Clara Assembly Member Sally Lieber. Sally Lieber served in the State Assembly from 2002 to 2008.

All in all, our county will retain two Senate seats, one shared with San Francisco, and the new Senate District seat, which will largely represent San Mateo County.  We will also retain three Assembly district seats, as we have now.  It is likely that the new District 19 seat (held by term-limited out Fiona Ma) will be a highly contested race and in my mind undoubtedly will be won by a San Francisco Asian candidate, as the Asian population is 39 percent in this renumbered District.

I don’t know if this article has helped inform you about the redistricting issue as it impacts San Mateo County, or just muddied the waters. I will say it is pretty confusing to me. Ω