Arnold Schwarzenegger takes on California Governor Gavin Newsom over gerrymandering plans
Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing to take on California Governor Gavin Newsom over plans to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries in a political gerrymandering effort.
The actor, who campaigned against similar issues when he was the Republican governor of the state a decade ago, is reigniting his political career to defend what he believes is the Democrats’ team’s attack on fair electoral processes.
According to Politico, Newsom is seeking to introduce redrawn district lines in November, ahead of the midterm elections next year, to impact the vote for the US House of Representatives in a manner similar to what is being done in Republican-led Texas.
However, to enact this change, he would need to reverse constitutional amendments that Schwarzenegger introduced during his time in office; hence, it would need to be approved by voters in order to pass.
As such, Schwarzenegger is preparing to take a leading role in the upcoming campaign to vote no on Newsom’s proposed new legislation. This will reunite him with many groups that also lobbied for the same cause during his original time in office.
The former governor is highly opposed to any form of gerrymandering, according to his spokesperson Daniel Ketchell, and disapproves of the developments in Texas as well as the plans for California. Ketchell explained: “He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that. He thinks it’s truly evil for politicians to take power from people, a practice that even some politicians struggle to understand.”
Following his success in implementing amendments to the state constitution that prohibited politicians from redrawing legislative districts and instead handed that power over to an independent commission, Schwarzenegger campaigned for similar policies to be introduced in other states, including Michigan, Colorado, Virginia, and Ohio, although not all of these came to fruition.
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