Response to LaMalfa’s defense of partisan gerrymandering

Congressman Doug LaMalfa’s recent statement in the Lassen County Times, (“LaMalfa shares California Republican Congressional Delegation’s Unified Statement on Newsom’s potential move to disenfranchise California voters and overturn Independent Redistricting Commission,” July 26, 2025, Doug LaMalfa Special to LassenNews.com), once again comes up short and is nothing more than a cynical attempt to mislead the voters he represents.

In the letter, which was signed by Representative LaMalfa and his California Republican congressional colleagues, LaMalfa expressed concern about “disenfranchising California voters.” He noted, without citing evidence that, “It’s a shame Newsom and the radical Left (sic) in Sacramento are willing to spend $200 million on a statewide special election, while running a deficit of $20 billion, in order to silence the opposition in our state.”

That LaMalfa and his GOP colleagues are presenting themselves as champions of voting rights and concerned about disenfranchisement of voters in California would be comical if it weren’t so obviously self-serving. I say this because at the time the letter was posted it was widely known that Texas Republicans planned a mid-decade, and therefore off-cycle gerrymandering effort to grab five new safe congressional seats in Congress. Now, days later, Texas Republicans have convened a special session and have released preliminary maps to do just that.

While California voters may not want a partisan gerrymander, Texas Republicans’ actions are a clear example of one. This is what prompted Governor Newsom’s response to seek a redistricting effort in California. Texas does not even have an independent commission.

Whether Texas voters like it or not, Texas Republicans are pursuing a mid-decade redistricting effort purely for political gain. I’ll wait for LaMalfa and his Republican colleagues to condemn the Texas redistricting effort that is being used to dilute the votes of communities that they don’t care to represent just to ensure a Republican advantage.

Governor Newsom’s actions, on the other hand, are a reaction to voter disenfranchisement in Texas and are intended to ensure that the will of the people is not trampled on a national scale.

Worth noting, too, is that LaMalfa stated that in California, “Republicans only hold nine congressional seats out of 52 despite winning 38 percent of the vote statewide.”

His statement suggests something is unfair to Republicans in California, perhaps? That point seems to undermine the California Citizens Redistricting Commission that he seems to be defending in the same letter to the Lassen County Times.

However, if the point of an independent redistricting commission is to eliminate partisan advantage in California, as LaMalfa suggests he favors, Republicans’ poor electoral showing in California then must reflect that the people of California just don’t like what Republicans are selling.

Nevertheless, Texas, with 38 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, is represented by 25 Republicans and only 12 Democrats with one seat vacant. That doesn’t include a vacancy because Governor Abbott has refused to call a special election to fill a seat vacated by the death of Democrat Sylvester Turner (Votebeat Texas, April 3, 2025).

With a 25-12 Republican advantage in Texas and refusal to fill a vacancy in a seat held previously by a Democrat, are LaMalfa, et. al. calling out the GOP in Texas for the underrepresentation of Democrats in that state?

Newsom hasn’t called for a special election, and he cannot simply ignore the independent redistricting commission. So, what is the justification of LaMalfa’s claim that Newsom plans to spend $200 million on a statewide special election that isn’t even so far proposed? I’ll leave that to the reader to conclude.

Newsom and Democrats in California are being forced into the position of exploring options to counter what can only be seen as a national effort by Republicans to rig elections. The governor is taking a stand to defend democracy against partisan gerrymandering designed to disenfranchise Democrats nationwide who might otherwise win the majority in the House of Representatives through the will of a national majority vote.

LaMalfa’s statement, therefore, is not a defense of an independent redistricting process or voter integrity, but a transparently partisan attack on a governor who dares to counter the GOP’s national strategy.

His silence on the Texas gerrymander reveals that his concern for “disenfranchising voters” is conditional — and only applies when it serves his party’s political interests.

The true test of his commitment to democratic principles will not be found in an attack on Newsom, but in his willingness to condemn the blatant power grab happening right now in Texas.

Gary McIntire, Susanville