New CA Legislative Districts Approved

Updated (Monday, 9:16 p.m.): Just hours after the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) approved new legislative maps for California, state Republican leaders began an effort to get them tossed.

Tom Del Beccaro, chairman of the California Republican Party, released a statement Monday that he supports a referendum on the state Senate boundaries and possibly the congressional lines.

"A referendum will be filed with respect to the Senate lines and possibly the Congressional lines," the statement read. "The California Republican Party will wholehartedly support those efforts when they come about. I have been saying for months that the CRC's actions have been unfair if not unconstitutional, and that remains the case. The CRP will do whatever it can to give voters the chance to correct what the Commission failed to do."

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The California Citizens Redistricting Commission on Monday approved new legislative district maps for the state.

No changes were made to the maps that were . A lawsuit and/or ballot referendum could be used to challenge the maps.

The commission approved the state Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization maps by a vote of 13-1.

The lone opponent was Anaheim chiropractor Michael Ward, a Republican. Fellow Republican Jodie Filkins Webber, an attorney from Riverside County, joined Ward as the only other person to oppose the map for the U.S. House of Representatives districts.

The commission was created after voters in 2008 passed , the Voters First Act, and includes five Democrats, five Republicans and four members who decline to state a party preference.

The members are of various ethnic backgrounds and live in various parts of California. They held a number of public hearings throughout the state and received thousands of written comments during the redistricting process.

Previously, districts had been created by legislators, and what they came up with was alleged to be a gerrymandered mess, designed to make sure incumbents could be re-elected.

"The commission followed the Constitution and we believe balanced the interests of all Californians in creating districts we believe are reasoned and make good sense," said Commission Chair Vincent P. Barabba, a Republican businessman from Santa Cruz County, at a press conference following Monday's vote.

Ward sang a different tune.

He said that the maps were "fundamentally flawed as the result of a tainted political process" and that the commission "broke the law" by ignoring the federal Voting Rights Act and making decisions "based on political motives."

"This commission became the citizens smoke-filled room, where average citizen commissioners engaged in dinner table deals and partisan gerrymandering, the very problems that this commission was supposed to prevent," Ward said.

When asked by a member of the press what he meant by "dinner table deals," Ward said his statement "stands on its own."

Ward said Hermosa Beach's congressional district, a Democratic Party-dominated zone that stretches along the coast from Malibu to Rancho Palos Verdes while poking inland in parts to capture Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Beverly Hills, was the "ribbon of shame district."

He cited several other districts as having been creatively designed for political purposes, but said he would not take part in any lawsuit or ballot referendum to challenge the maps.

A California Republican Party spokesman told the Los Angeles Times on Monday that the party would likely not file a suit and that it would probably make a decision later this week on whether to pursue a ballot referendum.

Following Ward's comments, Barabba said, "The sense I get is that Commissioner Ward attended different meetings than I did or at least saw them differently."

Earlier Patch coverage of the redistricting process: