Every ten years, California must redraw its political boundaries to reflect new population data gathered in the federal census.
In November 2008, California voters changed the way the state draws these lines by approving Proposition 11, the Voters First Act. The Act established a 14-member independent citizen commission charged with drawing the boundaries of California’s State Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization electoral districts. (2010’s Proposition 20 added redrawing the state’s Congressional districts to their mandate.)
The commission’s first charge is to ensure districts are of equal population. The second is to comply with the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices. The third mandate is that the districts be contiguous, respect communities with common interests and be shaped regularly.
The question then, is this: why does redistricting matter to environmental advocates?
The simple response to this complex question is that electing pro-environment members in protected “environmental communities-of-interest” will help guard against any erosion of safeguards and regulatory oversight for the air, land, and water that California’s environmental community has battled for decades to achieve.
Our monitoring of this process, and the testimony we at the California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund have provided to the commission, make a key point: that natural boundaries like watersheds, mountains, and coastlines often define communities of common interest. Indeed, natural environmental factors both define and contribute to the quality of life and the economy in rural, suburban, and urban regions.
Want to get involved? Please consider attending the open hearings around the state or providing written testimony to let the commission know how the environmental community feels. Go to the commission’s web site: www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov
– H. Eric Schockman, Ph.D, Vice President, California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
