California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest political gambit, Proposition 50, the “Election Rigging Response Act,” is a master class in hypocrisy. He dressed it up in the language of democracy and reform while gutting both.
What his proposed exercise in redistricting reveals, more than anything else, is that Newsom, rather than being the progressive reformer he so desperately poses as, is as cold, calculating, grubby, and greedy as any Boss Tweed who ever skulked through the alleys of power.
Let’s be clear: By proposing to seize control of congressional redistricting from the state’s independent citizens redistricting commission and handing it back to the politicians, Newsom is demanding nothing less than a return to what he says he believes is the bad old days of backroom wheeling and dealing — the very system he claims to have fought against when he styled himself a young reformist mayor of progressive San Francisco.
For years, California progressives boasted that their state had insulated itself from partisan manipulation. In 2008, voters approved Proposition 11, which took legislative line-drawing out of the hands of politicians and entrusted it instead to an independent redistricting commission. Two years later, with Proposition 20, California’s voters extended that reform to include congressional districts.
The idea was simple: Let ordinary citizens — not incumbents or party bosses — decide where the lines go, thereby increasing the chances of maps that ensure competitive elections, fair representation, and accountability.
I, for one, oppose the ceding of the legislature’s powers to draw district lines to such citizens’ commissions. Moving the mapping power to an unelected body removes the element of electoral accountability from the equation. For purposes of this commentary, however, my thinking on who draws district lines is irrelevant; what matters is Newsom’s thinking on the matter, and the standard he set for himself.
Regarding the Citizens Redistricting Commission, Newsom once said, “When we created the independent redistricting commission, which I think personally should be the case in every state… This is ridiculous. This gerrymandering is outrageous. I don’t like it on either side, and so I supported that. I remember doing that; I was mayor of San Francisco at the time when that initiative went forward. I think it was under then California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was promoting it at the time. I got a lot of grief from my own party for supporting it, which was interesting, but I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Newsom likes to style himself as a progressive reformer. But Proposition 50 reveals his true instincts: adherence to no principle other than whatever advances his interest at the moment. The independent redistricting commission was a product of bipartisan consensus and public demand for fairness. Proposition 50, on the other hand, is a product of political arrogance and ambition for higher office.
California voters have a choice this November. They can vote to ratify the governor’s power play and send a message that betraying one’s own principles — even as one claims to hold firm to them — can work. Or, they can vote to send a message that sticking to principles beyond one’s own advantage will be rewarded politically.
If they value the latter more than the former, they should vote NO on Proposition 50.
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*Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action (TPPA), the nation’s largest Tea Party Group.*
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https://dailycaller.com/2025/10/25/opinion-is-gavin-newsom-a-reformer-or-a-greedy-hypocrite-jenny-beth-martin/
