00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Gavin Newsom's corrupt redistricting scheme is worse than snake oil.
00:08It's arsenic to our democracy. You stand here, he's out there pontificating that in order to
00:17save democracy, we must destroy it. In order to empower the people, we must silence them
00:26and strip power from the citizens' redistricting committee.
00:33No one is going to fall for this. The voters want citizens to draw the lines, not politicians.
00:41You sit here and say, let the voters decide. They have already decided in 2010 over your
00:49objection, over the political class's objection. They gathered signatures and they put
00:56an initiative on the ballot that said, enough is enough, no more gerrymandering. They saw
01:01the ill that gerrymandering represents to our democracy. They saw the corruption. They saw
01:10the lack of transparency. They saw the bribery, the vote rigging, politicians carving out communities,
01:17silencing voices. And they said, enough, no more gerrymandering. In California, our voters
01:24are just, well, they're more advanced than other states' voters. They got it right a lot
01:30earlier. They gave us a gold standard in the Citizens Redistricting Commission. And what
01:35you're doing is saying, no, we don't care what they said in 2010. We are not listening
01:39to them. What they voted for to strip this body of the power that you are now apparently
01:44exercising in violation of the state constitution. The fact that we're even talking about redistricting
01:50on this floor today is a violation of the oath to uphold the state constitution. The fact
01:55that we're voting on a map today, purportedly drawn up by the legislature, it's in violation
02:01of Article 21. You don't possess the authority to do this. The voters already decided and took
02:07you out of the process. But here we are today. Here we are today violating the state constitution
02:14by even voting on these three items. You know, what we've witnessed in the last three weeks,
02:20the circus, is exactly underscoring the wisdom of the voters in 2010. Let me go through the
02:28differences between what they created with the Independent Citizen Redistricting Commission
02:32and what all of you have shown you're capable of in the last three weeks. Citizens draw the
02:39map under the citizens redistricting process. Under this process, politicians are manipulating
02:46the lines. Under the redistricting commission that the citizens created, all of their meetings
02:50are open meetings. Under their rules, the commissioners are barred from having any conversation
02:57ex parte. You lawyers in the room know what that means. You're not allowed to take proposals
03:02or talk about lines or draw maps. All the map drawing occurs in real time on camera, in open
03:09session. We know that these maps are drawn behind closed doors by a bunch of political consultants.
03:15And yet none of you are willing to put your names or reveal the names of who drew the maps.
03:22The Citizens Commission has to do it on a nonpartisan basis. You are openly admitting you're doing
03:29it for partisan advantage. Citizens on the commission are barred for 10 years.
03:33Assemblymember DeMaio, you're out of order. Please do not impugn the motives of members. Thank you.
03:43Citizens on the redistricting commission are barred for 10 years from seeking any election, county, state, or federal.
03:51We know that legislators that are involved in this process are actively preparing campaigns to run for these districts.
03:59The citizens' process created competitive districts where voters' voices are paramount and determine the outcome of the election.
04:10The maps that you're trying to impose are not competitive.
04:14And in fact, you take rural voters and you shove them in with urban voters to dilute their voice.
04:21How undemocratic. You want to talk about stripping people of their voice.
04:27I heard my colleague from Los Angeles and many of you say, we're doing this to protect health care.
04:3430 seconds.
04:34We're doing this because California is losing money.
04:37I wish you fought harder to solve the problems of this state as hard as you're fighting for some of these congressional districts for yourself and your colleagues.
04:47I wish you would fight to actually solve real problems happening here in California that actually matter.
04:52Look, the voters are ultimately going to be forced to decide this again.
04:56I think that once they understand what's going on, they will vote you down.
05:01Now, I know you're trying your hardest with a dishonest ballot title.
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