Riverside Political Groups Prep For Prop 50 Special Election, Encourage Residents To Vote

Political groups within the city of Riverside, both supporters and critics of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to redraw congressional districts, are preparing to launch their campaigns to court voters before the November 4 special election on Proposition 50.

If passed, Proposition 50 would temporarily alter congressional districts across the state to favor Democrats until 2030, changing maps previously drawn by an independent commission. The move has the potential to flip five seats in the House of Representatives from Republican to Democrat.

In a press conference earlier this year, Newsom said the redrawn maps were in reaction to the Republican-led redistricting effort in Texas that has the potential to oust five Democratic lawmakers. 

“Without that move by Texas, there would be no Proposition 50,” Shaun Bowler, a political science professor at the University of California, Riverside, said in an email to The Record. “So the question facing voters in Proposition 50 is what we dislike more: What we are going to do in response to Texas or what Texas did in the first place.”

For Democrats and Republicans in the city of Riverside, the choice was clear, though vastly different.

“If we don’t combat Trump’s power grab, we may not have a free and fair election in the future,” State Sen. Sabrina Cervantes said at a September 17 meeting of the Democrats of Greater Riverside (DGR). “We need to make sure that we fight back by voting yes on Proposition 50.”

Cervantes, who is the chair for the state’s Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee and a speaker at Newsom’s press conference, told the group of about 30 that the November 4 election would be one of the most important of their lifetimes as it could prevent Republicans from maintaining total control of the legislative branch after next year’s midterms. 

Freya Foley, DGR president, said her main focus over the next month was to motivate Democrats across the city to show up to the polls in this election by mobilizing the group of 120 members to phone bank, door knock and reach out to neighbors to speak in favor of Proposition 50. That push was even more evident following last month’s Assembly District 63 special election, in which Republican Natasha Johnson beat Democrat Chris Shoults, where less than 21% of registered voters cast a ballot. 

“That’s not acceptable, we can’t win anything like that,” Foley said. “We have more Democrats in this area than Republicans, but more Republicans vote than do Democrats, and that’s a problem.”

Marcelle Williams, president of the Riverside Republican Women Federated, said she also plans to encourage her group’s 150 members to talk to folks about the special election — in hopes of defeating the proposition.

“We encourage them to walk door to door, phone banking, [send] mailers, we just get involved in every front,” Williams said. “I went down to pick up kits for mailers, and they ran out. So I’m hoping to get a call to pick up those kits so we can stuff them and they can get it mailed out prior to the November election.”

Williams said the partisan effort would eliminate fair and competitive districts, erode accountability and allow gerrymandering, which has been shown to disproportionately impact people of color.

She added that she was skeptical that the Democrat-led effort would pass, making the $200 million cost of the special election a waste of taxpayer money.

If Californians choose to adopt the new maps, the decision could impact voters across the county, including those currently represented by District 41 Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) and District 48 Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Temecula). The city of Riverside, currently represented by District 39 Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside), would remain in that district according to the proposed map.