There will be an election in California THIS YEAR on Tuesday, November 4th. The only item on the ballot will be Proposition 50, which has been placed on the ballot by the state legislature. Here’s why we need to vote NO on Prop 50:

If approved, all of California’s congressional districts will be thrown out and new maps drawn by politicians and partisan consultants will be implemented.

In 2008 and 2010, voters in California approved creating an independent Citizens Commission to draw our congressional and state legislative districts every 10 years. Voters wanted to take the power away from politicians who drew districts that benefit themselves. All the political parties opposed the creation of this Commission at the time.

The new proposed congressional districts were designed only to maximize the amount of seats won by the majority party in Sacramento, not to better represent voters or communities.

Currently, San Joaquin County is almost entirely within one congressional district. This is the result of much hard work and effort from residents and organizations to ensure that our county had its own representation for the first time in decades. The new maps would split San Joaquin County into FIVE different districts, leaving cities like Ripon and Manteca with Bay Area cities that have little in common with us. Parts of Stockton would be placed with Merced County. The City of Lodi will be split up into THREE different districts.

Several of the new districts were drawn specifically to include territories that allow several members of the state legislature to run for higher office next year, the same state legislators who had input on drawing the new maps in the first place!

Proposition 50 is a corrupt effort by our Governor and politicians in Sacramento to redraw our congressional districts to benefit themselves and to take power away from citizens to determine who represents us in Congress.