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There’s never a shortage of timely topics to write about in my monthly letters. Today, I’m taking a stab at the subject of redistricting.

For 175 years, from California’s admission into the U.S. until now, it sits as the fourth largest economy in the world. More than 220 attempts have been made to divide our state into two, three and even six states. The various reasons have included its sheer size and its presumed ungovernability.

No matter which side of the political aisle you’re on, or maybe you’ve created your own aisle, you might believe that California is pretty ungovernable. Its population, cultures and topography essentially define the word “diverse.” Many say this is the beauty of our Golden State — that it’s a colossal ship which is difficult to steer, but when it finds its course, it sails magnificently.

Sadly, however, it hasn’t found that course in decades — or at least when it seems to, it never lasts. While we’re a cornucopia of the world’s food supply, the international leader of technology and innovation, as well as the acknowledged dream factory of film and television, we’re still an easy punchline to jokes about dysfunction and economic chaos. Forget the gags about us being the “land of fruits and nuts” — what we’re too often seen as is the land of overripe political movements and half-baked ideas.

And now, the Republican leader of the state Assembly, James Gallagher, has made another stab, quite recently, to “halve” California. His plan would have been to separate our “left coast” from our inland domains — meaning that Democratic areas including Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area would be their own state, while counties like Shasta, Mariposa, Tulare and the rural areas, which tend to be peopled by Republicans, would be another.

As he told Capital Public Radio, people who want us to split in two include “farmers who’ve seen their commodity prices drop, and blue-collar workers who … commute to a job at a refinery that’s about to close, and who are filling up at the gas pump paying the highest gas prices in the nation.”  The senator called these “the forgotten people of California,” adding that “the powers-that-be really don’t care about them because they don’t have to. They will get reelected … and they don’t really have to address the issues of … inland California.”

Yes, the move was intended to counter the redistricting bill we’ll have a chance to vote on next month — one which Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to sell as being better for everyone. Gallagher and his allies think that only a political novice or someone who’s willfully naive wouldn’t catch on that it’s just a ploy to help ensure the state has a strong Democratic turnout in the 2026 midterm elections and, to be sure, the 2028 presidential race.     

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and find myself growing ever more disturbed. I wouldn’t mind living in a state that didn’t include most of Los Angeles and Hollywood, though they’re definitely one of our economic drivers — but I would like to see us keep the Silicon Valley and our cherished agricultural producers. However, what I’d like more than anything else is for California to unite, not divide itself, to continue to lead with our rich diversity of resources and people.

We need to develop an ethic of good old common sense, and as some would say, toss out the elected officials who show political will only when it’s about their party’s or their own survival.

Where are the redistricting advocates and their political will when the genuine issues in this state rear their hideous heads — issues like homelessness, wildfires, runaway insurance rates and rising crime? Why can’t we create a truly nonpartisan panel of Republicans, Democrats and the variety of independents who comprise the electorate to sit down and spend an uninterrupted month listing some of our most pressing problems and coming up with some real solutions?

Why is it that so much of their time is spent on manipulating divisive issues? And, when they’re not doing that, they’re playing musical chairs, as I’ve pointed out in previous letters, deciding on who’s about to be termed out, who’ll replace that person and where that termed-out person can safely land in another elected office. Californians on both sides of the aisle agree that the people of this state elected individuals to a particular seat, not a lifetime appointment to a post with a guaranteed income.

Even though Sen. Gallagher’s proposal will go nowhere this year, the proposal to grant California a divorce from one half of itself has enough history for us to assume it’ll crop up again. Our state library chronicles this, almost amusingly, in a piece you can access online whose introduction reads, “There have been more attempts to divide California than anniversaries of its statehood in 1850.”

Maybe the one thing we’ve always had in common has been our restlessness within the state we love. Maybe we’ve always wanted it to be better. Maybe it still can be if we tell our leaders to play nice together, or we’ll simply go to the polls and vote them out of the game.

What do you think?

Winnie Comstock-Carlson
President and Publisher

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