Fresno County will have four representatives in Congress. That is not good for Fresnans

Stand on the south side of the East Bullard Avenue-North First Street intersection in Fresno, and you are in the new congressional district that Democrat Jim Costa hopes to represent come next year.

But move to the northwest side of that intersection, and the congressional representative could be Republican Tom McClintock. Cross First Street to the northeast side, and that would likely be Republican Kevin McCarthy’s territory.

That microcosm look at redistricting reflects the new reality coming to Fresno, courtesy of the citizens commission that completed drawing new political boundaries based off the 2020 Census.

Fresno County got sliced up into four congressional districts. While it might seem advantageous to have four members looking out for the county in Congress, in reality only one of those actually represents the bulk of the area. Costa, a Fresno native who has been in the House since 2005, announced he will seek the 21st District seat and its population of 589,000 people living in Fresno County. The district also stretches south into a share of Tulare County.

District 5 has 122,619 Fresno County residents. It runs from north Fresno all the way to Modesto and some Gold Country toward. McClintock currently represents much of the mountain area in Congress in a different district.

District 20, which presumably will be sought by McCarthy, who is the House GOP leader, has 200,014 Fresno County people. It will take in Clovis, but starts in Bakersfield.

And District 13, which incumbent Democrat Rep. Josh Harder of Turlock has said he will campaign for, has 96,448 people living on Fresno County’s west side in towns like Mendota and Coalinga.

Veteran reps, new town

The fact is only Costa will have the sizable portion of Fresno County in his district, should he win the 21st. But north Fresno will be second-fiddle in District 5. In that one, most of the people live in Stanislaus County and the Modesto area.

For McCarthy, the population center is Kern County and Bakersfield. And for Harder, it is Merced County.

So those politicians will likely need to 3pay most of their attention to places beyond Fresno County where most of the voters are located. And with McCarthy preparing to become the next speaker of the House, should the Democrats lose their majority after this fall’s election, just how much he could focus on matters dealing with the Clovis-Fresno area remains to be determined.

McClintock cleared the field

One drawback to McClintock’s announcement is that it kept state Sen. Andreas Borgeas from running for District 5. Borgeas, whose home is in Fresno, is also a Republican, and his Senate district covers many of the mountain communities that will be in the new congressional boundaries. But he understands the power of McClintock’s name recognition, so he decided not to mount a challenge.

That’s too bad, because Borgeas is a much more reasonable Republican with values the GOP sorely needs in Washington. He is willing to find compromises to accomplish legislation, not just be a wall of opposition that McClintock has been.

McClintock is a hard-right member of the GOP who voted against impeaching then President Trump, has wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act at every turn, and voted against a bipartisan relief bill for Americans suffering the economic fallout of the coronavirus shutdown. Even McCarthy and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, supported that bill.

McClintock rails against government, but has drawn a taxpayer-funded salary for decades.

He denies the scientific reality of climate change even though much of his mountain district is threatened by climate change-driven wildfires. He claimed that government efforts to fight COVID-19 were an example of “authoritarian socialism” even as the death toll climbed toward 200,000. Today it stands at over 800,000.

McClintock does not even live in his current district, and likely will not if elected to the new one.

McClintock pushes a divisive partisan agenda that serves no one but himself. Witness this statement from a campaign mailer two years ago about the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

“The hyperbolic statements of preening politicians, self-important public health officers and agenda-driven journalists were never justified, and they deliberately fueled a public panic that laid waste to western economies and have undermined the foundations of western civilization.”

This is who could well become the next congressional representative for north Fresno. And that is all because of how the redistricting commission carved up the city.

Not one person on the commission was from the central San Joaquin Valley. Ten years from now, when the lines get redrawn, that must be a requirement. California’s fifth-largest city deserves a much better result.