A special election this fall, asking voters to redraw California’s congressional map, will cost San Bernardino County an estimated $24.9 million.
California will pay the cost of redistricting before the election, Christian Beltran, legislative director with the state Department of Finance, told members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee this week.
The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters released the cost estimate Aug. 21. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters earlier this week estimated the special election will cost between $15 and $16 million to conduct in that county.
Gov. Gavin Newsom first proposed drawing temporary new congressional district maps that heavily favor Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives in July. California is currently represented by 43 Democrats and 9 Republicans in the House of Representatives.
The move came in response to a similar one in Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had called a special session of the Texas legislature to redraw their congressional map to more heavily favor Republicans at the urging of President Donald Trump. Trump has said Republicans are “entitled” to more congressional seats in Texas, since he won the state in the 2024 presidential election. If approved by the Texas legislature, the new map is expected to add five Republican seats in the 2026 election. Texas currently has 25 Republicans, 12 Democrats and one vacant seat in the House of Representatives.
Historically, House of Representative elections held midway through a presidential administration heavily favor the party that does not hold the White House. At the moment, Republicans hold a narrow seven-seat lead in the House of Representatives.
But redistricting congressional maps is more complicated in California.
In 2008 and 2010, California voters opted to establish and then strengthen a non-partisan redistricting commission, made up of five Democrats, six Republicans and four of no party preference. As of Feb. 5, 45.27% of California’s 22.9 million registered voters are registered Democrats, 25.22% are registered Republicans, 22.34% are registered as no party preference and 7.16% of voters are are registered to other parties, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.
The committee most recently redrew maps in 2021, using data from the 2020 Census. And because ballot initiatives in California function as amendments to the California constitution, they can only be revised or changed by another ballot initiative.
Normally, the cost of conducting an election is split between all the governments with an election on the ballot. But no other elections had been scheduled for November in California, meaning the state of California will be paying the full cost of the election. Republicans in the California legislature have estimated the special election will cost more than $230 million statewide.
The vote to put the matter before the voters passed the California legislature on Thursday, Aug. 21, by a vote of 57-20 in the Assembly and 30-8 in the state Senate. The issue will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot as Proposition 50.
Legislators’ response was split along party lines.
“After witnessing seven months of blatant assaults on our laws, our Constitution, and our humanity, voters see the federal administration for the abhorrent failure that it is,” state Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-Colton, says in a statement issued by her office. “We refuse to back down from this fight that has been forced upon us – and we’re doing so in line with our values and commitments, by bringing the fight straight to voters.”
Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, one of the House Republicans endangered by the new maps, has referred to the redistricting as a “power grab.”
“Gavin Newsom’s gerrymandering power grab eliminates the work of the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, tramples our state constitution, and gives away the rights of citizens to insider politicians,” Calvert, who has represented Riverside County in Congress since 1992, posted on X.
“While Republicans expected Democrats to just sit on the sidelines and watch as they attempted to steal power from the American people, here in California we are jumping into the game and going on offense,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, says in a statement released by his office.
Darrell Issa, R-Escondido, who represents southwest Riverside County and San Diego, and was first elected in 2000, also blasted the special election.
“This is simply a Democrat power grab,” Issa posted to X. “It’s time we fight back and block the Gavinmander on Nov 4th.”
If approved by voters Nov. 4, Proposition 50 would replace the maps drawn by the redistricting commission in 2021 with new maps that would expire after 2030. New maps would be drawn after the census that year.
