Former President Barack Obama has waded into states\u2019 efforts at rare mid-decade redistricting efforts, saying he agrees with California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s response to alter his state\u2019s congressional maps, in the way of Texas redistricting efforts promoted by President Donald Trump aimed at shoring up Republicans\u2019 position in next year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that Gov. Newsom\u2019s approach is a responsible approach. He said this is going to be responsible. We\u2019re not going to try to completely maximize it,\u201d Obama said at a Tuesday fundraiser on Martha\u2019s Vineyard in Massachusetts, according to excerpts obtained by The Associated Press. \u201cWe\u2019re only going to do it if and when Texas and\/or other Republican states begin to pull these maneuvers. Otherwise, this doesn\u2019t go into effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
While noting that \u201cpolitical gerrymandering\u201d is not his \u201cpreference,\u201d Obama said that, if Democrats \u201cdon\u2019t respond effectively, then this White House and Republican-controlled state governments all across the country, they will not stop, because they do not appear to believe in this idea of an inclusive, expansive democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to organizers, the event raised $2 million for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and its affiliates, one of which has filed and supported litigation in several states over GOP-drawn districts. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Eric Holder, who served as Obama\u2019s attorney general and heads up the group, also appeared.<\/p>\n
The former president\u2019s comments come as Texas lawmakers return to Austin this week, renewing a heated debate over a new congressional map creating five new potential GOP seats. The plan is the result of prodding by President Donald Trump, eager to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives. Texas Democratic lawmakers delayed a vote for 15 days by leaving the state in protest, depriving the House of enough members to do business.<\/p>\n
Spurred on by the Texas situation, Democratic governors including Newsom have pondered ways to possibly strengthen their party\u2019s position by way of redrawing US House district lines, five years out from the Census count that typically leads into such procedures.<\/p>\n
In California \u2014 where voters in 2010 gave the power to draw congressional maps to an independent commission, with the goal of making the process less partisan \u2014 Democrats have unveiled a proposal that could give that state\u2019s dominant political party an additional five US House seats in a bid to win the fight to control of Congress next year. If approved by voters in November, the blueprint could nearly erase Republican House members in the nation\u2019s most populous state, with Democrats intending to win the party 48 of its 52 US House seats, up from 43.<\/p>\n
A hearing over that measure devolved into a shouting match Tuesday as a Republican lawmaker clashed with Democrats, and a committee voted along party lines to advance the new congressional map. California Democrats do not need any Republican votes to move ahead, and legislators are expected to approve a proposed congressional map and declare a Nov. 4 special election by Thursday to get required voter approval.<\/p>\n
Newsom and Democratic leaders say they\u2019ll ask voters to approve their new maps only for the next few elections, returning map-drawing power to the commission following the 2030 census \u2014 and only if a Republican state moves forward with new maps. Obama applauded that temporary timeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019re going to do it in a temporary basis because we\u2019re keeping our eye on where we want to be long term,\u201d Obama said, referencing Newsom\u2019s take on the California plan. \u201cI think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former President Barack Obama has waded into states\u2019 efforts at rare mid-decade redistricting efforts, saying he agrees with California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s response to alter his state\u2019s congressional maps, in the way of Texas redistricting efforts promoted by President Donald Trump aimed at shoring up Republicans\u2019 position in next year\u2019s elections. \u201cI believe that Gov. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":85671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85672,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85658\/revisions\/85672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}