FROM FOX NEWS: Early voting is now underway in California in a special election that will make a huge impact on next year’s battle for the U.S. House majority.
California voters are deciding whether to pass a ballot proposition this November which would dramatically alter the state’s congressional districts, putting the left-leaning state front-and-center in the high-stakes political fight over redistricting that pits President Donald Trump and the GOP against the Democrats.
California state lawmakers this summer approved a special proposition on the November ballot to obtain voter approval to temporarily sidetrack the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature. Ballots began being mailed out on Monday.
The effort in California, which could create five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts, aims to counter the passage in the reliable red state of Texas of a new map that aims to create up to five right-leaning House seats. Failure to approve what’s known as Proposition 50 would be a stinging setback for Democrats.
California voters must approve giving redistricting power back to the legislature.
“If we lose here, we are going to have total Republican control in the House, the Senate and the White House for at least two more years,” Newsom told supporters. “If we win here, we can put a check on Trump for his final two years.”
But former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who helped win the passage of constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010 that gave the power to draw state legislative and congressional districts away to an independent commission, has been fighting against Newsom.
“That’s what they want to do is take us backwards — this is why it is important for you to vote no on Prop 50,” Schwarzenegger said in an ad against Proposition 50. “Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”
READ MORE AT FOX NEWS
