SACRAMENTO, Calif. — From the local level to the national, California is in the middle of redrawing all district lines. It’s a process that happens every ten years.
How California redraws its lines could affect the entire country. To retake control of the House of Representatives, Republicans only need to pick up five seats in the 2022 Midterm Elections.
California has several seats that are considered swing seats.
Before the creation of a redistricting commission made up of independent Californians in 2008, the legislature was in charge of drawing lines.
"It was all done behind closed doors," said Paul Mitchell, with Redistricting Partners. "In fact, the last statewide redistricting run by the legislature was passed the day after 9/11, when nobody was paying attention to redistricting. It was a political set of lines. It was a true gerrymander.”
Paul Mitchell is the head of Redistricting Partners, a nonpartisan redistricting firm that works with many municipalities.
The commission is in charge of coming up with state and federal districts.
"We have these seats that generally we would consider swing seats, "Mitchell said of House seats, "and in 2022, those seats could easily be going towards Democrats depending on how they're drawn or to the Republicans."
According to the state’s report on party percentages, some districts to keep an eye on include District 49 which incorporates San Diego and Orange County. It's roughly 35% Democratic, 34% Republican.
Similar stories are in the San Joaquin Valley, North Los Angeles, and Orange Counties.
"We do not look at this, at that information, in terms of party affiliations," Commissioner Alicia Fernandez said. "Our task is to draw fair districts that are representative of the people."
"We are very committed to ensuring that we meet the deadline," she added. "The first deadline will be Nov. 15, which is when we need to release our first draft maps."
After the commission releases the first draft, the public will be able to weigh in on it. The final map is due by Dec. 27.
The commission is meeting this week for a process it calls hypothetical visualization, which means looking at areas that fit well together and seeing what would happen if they combined them and vice versa.