California Heads Into Uncharted Territory With Redistrict Vote

Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, August 25th, 2025:

• State Lawmakers have paved the way for Governor Newsom’s redistricting plan to go before voters on a November ballot, but not all voters are sold on the idea of taking a partisan approach to draw up California’s district map–even if Texas plans to do the same in an attempt to tip the mid-term elections in the GOP’s favor. Some worry the move would take California into murky political waters down the line.
• Wildfire victims in Los Angeles County are starting to rebuild their lives. A bill is making its way through Sacramento to make sure that renters are not excluded from help that is extended to home owners–however, it’s facing mounting criticism from both landlords and tenants.

Some Experts Argue California’s Redistricting Gambit Puts Politics Over People

Governor Newsom has been vocal about the need for California to meet proverbial fire with fire, and redraw its district maps in order to counter Texas’s gerrymander plans, which would create five more winnable House seats for the GOP.

Those that have been instrumental in making sure California’s redistricting process best represents state residents, however, are not so sold on the plan. There is worry that this heavily partisan redistricting plan will lead to a massive shift in the state’s political landscape.

In 2010, California voters approved Prop 20, which mandated that the California Citizens Redistricting Commission be tasked with drawing up the state’s congressional district maps every 10 years. The Prop passed with more than 60 percent of the vote, and was lauded as a way to create a district map that represented the residential make-up of the state, instead of a map that was drawn for purely political gain.

Advocates of the commission now worry that the gerrymandering fight between California and Texas could mean the end of the Golden State’s people-first approach to redistricting.

Too Far or Not Far Enough? That’s the Question Around Bill Meant to Help Renters Impacted by SoCal Wildfires

More than six months after the Eaton and Palisades wildfires razed nearly 13,000 homes and apartments near Los Angeles, property owners are beginning the arduous process of rebuilding. As they do, state Senator Aisha Wahab wants to make sure renters aren’t left out.

Before the January fires swept in, tenants in many of the apartment buildings had certain protections, including rent control and limitations on when a landlord could evict them. But, under existing law, the apartments will lose those protections once rebuilt. Wahab’s bill, SB 522, aims to close a loophole in the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which expires in 2030.

The law limits annual rent increases and restricts evictions to only “just-cause” cases, including not paying the rent, violating the lease or withdrawing the unit from the rental market. The law applies on a rolling basis to most multifamily properties built more than 15 years ago.

SB 522 would extend those protections to homes destroyed in a wildfire, flood or other natural disaster, rather than waiting another 15 years for the clock to restart.

But the proposed legislation has been contentious since it was introduced — condemned by rental property owners for going too far and criticized by tenants for not going far enough. The bill is expected to head to the Assembly floor in the coming weeks.