Investigation Uncovers Democrats’ Successful Efforts to Subvert Citizens Redistricting Commission

SACRAMENTO --An investigation has uncovered evidence that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outright manipulated the redistricting process to benefit Democrat candidates. The report, published this morning by ProPublica, a Puliter-Prize winning investigative journalism website, detailed the relationship between CRC members and officials from the DNC, stating that "California's congressional Democrats ran a secret effort earlier this year to manipulate the work of the independent citizen's panel that drew the state's new political districts, foiling the intent of reformers who sought to remove the redistricting process from the control of party bosses."

Read the entire ProPublica investigation, "How Democrats Fooled California's Redistricting Commission" HERE, as well as the report in the San Jose Mercury News HERE. The California Republican Party has consistently expressed concerns that the redistricting process, which was designed to be a transparent, non-partisan procedure, had been overrun by partisan interests and its outcome unfairly manipulated. "The ProPublica report vindicates my repeated contention that the redistricting process was hijacked,"said CRP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro."That report, however, is just the tip of the iceberg.The corruption of the process went far beyond what was disclosed in that report. No fair minded person can now say the process or the result was fair. I am calling for an immediate and thorough investigation, by Congressional and State authorities,to get to the bottom of this obviously corrupted process. Beyond that, the Congressional and Senate lines as drawn by the Commission should not be used in any way for the upcoming elections."

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Earlier this year, Chairman Del Beccaro wrote a scathing article in the political website, Flash Report, called "The Redistricting Commission -- Worse Than I Could Possibly Imagine." In it, Del Beccaro wrote:

"It has been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The intentions of Prop 11 and 20 were indeed good. But the process intended to provide fair redistricting has been overtaken by partisanship and incompetence. The truly fair-minded people on the Commission cannot allow this process to be cynically hijacked. It is time for them to vote down any plans that remotely resemble the most recent visualizations. It is also time for Californians to consider saving themselves from the Commission they created, even if that means by referendum."

From the Redistricting Commission's inception, the CRP petitioned the CRC to conduct itself with openness and fairness. In March, the party recommended that the commission hire bi-partisan line drawing experts and Voting Rights Act counsel to assist them with re-drawing legislative lines to avoid the commission being cast as a partisan one. Instead, they chose to ignore the party's advice and hired Q2 Data and Research, a firm widely known for its ties to Democrats. Pleaseread the letter Chairman Del Beccaro sent to the commissioners regarding this decision. Chairman Del Beccaro also chronicled the Commission's proceedings with pieces in theSacramento Bee andFox and Hounds Daily, which pointed out the high level of partisanship involved with the selection of Q2 Data and Research. Shortly thereafter, it wasrevealed byCal Watch Dog that one of the commissioners, Dr. Gabianno T. Aguirre, had made multiple political campaign contributions to Democratic candidates and has a special "web of connections" with a special interest group that submitted its own redistricting proposals to the commission. Again, a clear violation of the Redistricting Commission's rules. The CRPcalled for Aguirre to step down as his involvement compromised the commission's integrity. Those calls fell on deaf ears, and Dr. Aguirre was allowed to maintain his position on the Commission. These concerns, as well as numerous other complaints, arelisted in this memo from Fairness and Accountability In Redistricting (F.A.I.R.) as well as links to official letters to the Citizens Redistricting Commission listed below:

• CRC PRA Request
• Letter to CRC re: McDonald Barreto
• Letter to CRC re: Population Deviation
• Letter to CRC re: Aguirre
• Letter to the CRC re: Not Adopt Senate Plan
• Bagley Keene Act Proposition Objection to Action'

CRP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro is available to comment on this investigative report and the corruption of California's redistricting process. Contact Mark Standriff at 916-529-9990 to schedule.