Redistricting Map Expected to be Approved

A California redistricting panel Monday is expected to approve a plan that will dramatically transform the state’s congressional landscape, and as a result, most expect there to be a widespread turnover of congressional seats.

The redistricting maps were made final on July 28, and the vote that will take place Monday is being called a formality.

Each redrawn map needs at least three yes votes from each of the groups that makes up the commission — there are five Republicans, five Democrats and four independents — if a map fails to win approval it will be drawn by three “special masters” appointed by the state Supreme Court.

Designed by the bipartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission, the plan demolishes what some experts are calling an “incumbent-oriented” map, and at the same time, it is putting the careers of many long-serving lawmakers in jeopardy.

In fact, since 2000, only one seat in the delegation has switched party control.

The plans show new boundaries for California’s 40 state senate districts, 53 congressional districts and 80 state assembly districts, as well as the Board of Equalization districts, which handle taxation issues.

Long Beach City Councilman Gary DeLong plans on taking advantage of the new boundaries and said last week that he will run for U.S. Congress in 2012.

“If at the end of the redistricting process there is a competitive Long Beach seat, I'm running,” DeLong told Belmont-Shores Patch.

“I look forward to the opportunity to bring fiscal sanity to Washington DC ... the current approach of burdening future generations with more and more debt clearly will result in a reduced quality of life for American families. We need to reverse course, the sooner the better.”

DeLong is serving his second term on the Long Beach City Council, representing Belmont Shore, Naples, Belmont Heights, Park Estates, and other East Side neighborhoods, representing about 50,000 residents.

The late Congressman Steve Horn, elected to Congress in 1989, previously served Long  Beach.

If the plan is adopted, and not changed further by possible litigation, most of Long Beach, including the Port of Long Beach, will be placed into a new Congressional district that extends into Orange County (Rossmoor/Westminster toward Garden Grove).

If the maps are approved in Monday’s vote, the 2012 race will feature Councilman DeLong, a Republican, and Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-LB-Paramount). Other candidates can still declare and enter in the open primary.

“The new boundaries includes most of Long Beach,” DeLong said. “It doesn’t include the 9th district or more of the top half of the 8th, but it includes Los Alamitos, Cypress, Rossmoor and portions of Westminster and Garden Grove.”

Redistricting is done every 10 years as required by federal law. It is done after new information on population is released in the 10-year-census. The results of the 2010 census were released in this past spring, which is when the commission began meeting — it later produced its first draft map in June.

The panel is expected to approve its maps despite unhappiness over them among some politicians and interest groups. The commission has accepted public comment on the maps as they have progressed, but some remain upset. But the commission has stated it will make its Aug. 15 constitutional deadline.