Central Valley Republicans are being silenced in redistricting fight | Opinion

If Gov. Gavin Newsom and fellow Democratic legislators are to succeed in convincing voters to approve a mid-decade redistricting of congressional districts that favor an additional five Democrats, they will have to act like grownups.

Silencing Republicans on the Assembly Elections Committee — as Assembly Democratic leaders did on Tuesday — was not the wisest move. Why? Because those legislators represent about 470,000 residents whose input is necessary on a hastily drawn proposal to shelf the voter-approved California Citizens Redistricting Commission, and such pettiness makes for extremely poor optics for Democrats (it’s just one more reason voters are turned off by the sausage-making process in the state Capitol).

We believe Newsom is right to call for the redrawing of congressional lines in response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott acquiescing to President Donald Trump’s request that he come up with five additional Republican congressional districts. The president’s interest is in keeping a Republican majority in the House.

However, Tuesday’s circus of cutting off a lawmaker’s mic, giving the Republican vice chair of the committee no notice of the hearing and not allowing committee members time to read the 16,000 public comments on the proposal smacks of the same tactics Abbott is pulling in Texas.

Tuesday, Republican lawmakers filed an emergency petition with the California Supreme Court, accusing statehouse Democrats of blatantly violating the California Constitution by speeding bills through the Legislature.

“We are tired of the political powerful and elite taking the power away from the people,” said state Sen. Suzette Valladares, R-Acton, at a news conference at the California Republican Party headquarters in downtown Sacramento.

The lawsuit asks the court to freeze action on the redistricting effort because the state Constitution requires a 30-day review period for new legislation before lawmakers can vote on it.

Democrats are rushing to approve three bills to meet a Friday deadline to place proposed congressional district maps on the ballot for a special election on Nov. 4. If voters pass the measure, new congressional district maps would be used for the 2026 through 2030 elections. The citizens commission would resume its work for the 2032 election.

Valley Republicans silenced

Central Valley Republicans Alexandra Macedo of Tulare and David Tangipa of Clovis, both in their first Assembly terms, were treated as persona non grata by Democrats.

On Sunday morning, Macedo posted on X that she had yet to receive an election committee hearing notice or language of the bill. “NO Transparency!” said Macedo, vice-chair of the Assembly Elections Committee. By noon on Monday, she had not gotten notice of the committee meeting.

On Tuesday, she asked in committee about the source of the redistricted maps. “Who drew the maps? It’s a very simple question.”

Committee Chair Gail Pallerin said it was the Assembly.

“I’m a member of the Assembly, and I didn’t draw the maps,” said Macedo, who was later told Assembly leadership drew the maps.

The new maps, which were released Friday by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, were drawn by redistricting wizard Paul Mitchell.

Tangipa had his mic cut off as he tried asking the costs involved in the redrawing. Before that happened, he was able to get a question answered.

“How did we take into consideration communities of interest?” Tangipa asked. “Were they done to protect race, religion, all the ideologies that we have right now to make sure that we’re protecting the voters of California. Was that done in that consideration?”

State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a co-author of the bill, responded: “It’s a partisan gerrymander. That’s what we’re talking about here. This is partisan politics. That is what we’re talking about.”

Macedo and Tangipa were unsuccessful in amending Assembly Bill 604 (the Assembly companion to Senate Bill 280.)

Democrats need to rethink how they’re treating Republicans who don’t have the votes to make meaningful changes to the bill. Why give the GOP more reasons to condemn the redistricting plan?

This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 12:03 PM.