Kevin Kiley Blasts Newsom Over CA Redistricting Push, Accuses Gov. Of 'Defrauding' Voters

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) tore into Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats over efforts to redraw Congressional districts, and urged support for HR 8889, to prohibit States from carrying out more than one Congressional redistricting after a decennial census and apportionment.

Transcript

00:00I rise today because democracy is under assault in my home state. California

00:17politicians, led by the governor, are throwing a grenade at our Constitution

00:22in order to strip power from voters and seize it for themselves. This fraud on

00:29our electorate compels action by Congress to protect the representative form of

00:34government that citizens of every state are due. That's why today I am calling for

00:40a prompt vote on House Resolution 4889. On three separate occasions, California

00:47voters have deliberately chosen to remove politicians from the process of drawing

00:52the lines for legislative districts. Voters have empowered an independent

00:56Citizens Redistricting Commission to set the boundaries of representation so that

01:01free and fair elections, not political manipulation, is the motive force in our

01:08democracy. This principle is so important, so vital to safeguarding democracy, that the

01:14Citizens Commission is enshrined in our state Constitution along with a number of

01:19principles to guide redistricting. Redistricting occurs once per decade after

01:23the census. The legislature is barred from participating. The members of the

01:28Citizens Commission may not run for public office. Districts are to be drawn in an

01:32open process based on extensive public input. Boundaries are to be set based on

01:36neutral criteria, like keeping communities together. District lines cannot be

01:40influenced by partisan considerations or drawn to favor or disfavor any incumbent or

01:46candidate. In one fell swoop, Gavin Newsom is blowing up all of these

01:51constitutional principles. His unprecedented mid-decade gerrymander tears up the map

01:57created by our Citizens Commission, replacing it with one drawn behind closed doors and

02:02adopted by politicians. One designed with explicitly partisan goals and zero public

02:07input. One that tears communities apart while doing special favors to Sacramento

02:12insiders. Do the voters want this? Do Californians want to overturn everything they

02:18have previously voted for? Emphatically not. Polling shows that two-thirds of voters, an

02:24overwhelming majority of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, favor keeping the

02:29commission. This would seem to be a problem for Governor Newsom, as his plan to push the

02:33commission aside requires voter approval. So to overcome this problem, to produce an

02:39artifact of voter approval for a proposition our voters strongly oppose, the

02:44governor has resorted to two strategies. Disenfranchising voters and defrauding them.

02:49First, the governor has called a sudden impromptu, off-year, low turnout special election, asking

02:57a partial electorate to overturn the will of our full electorate. To further suppress

03:01voter participation, he's thrown our election rules out the window in a hyper-accelerated timeline

03:07unlike anything our state has ever seen. Meaning fewer polling places, fewer

03:11notifications to voters, and at least at first a digital only voter guide. Second, the

03:17governor is committing outright fraud on the ballot itself, describing the proposition

03:21in terms designed to fool voters into thinking yes is no and no is yes. To try to justify all

03:28of this, to clothe naked political self-interest in some kind of principle, the governor and his

03:34enablers have treated us to one absurd paradox after another. We are told that another state

03:40is doing something so bad, so sinister, that we should do it too. We're told that banishing

03:46an independent redistricting commission somehow supports independent redistricting. We're

03:52told that we should fight fire with fire, even if that means the whole world burns. This

03:58perversion of federal elections simply cannot be tolerated by the United States Congress.

04:04We have a duty to protect the rights of voters in selecting their representatives in this

04:08body, and we have the authority to do so under the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

04:14Pursuant to that authority, I have introduced House Resolution 4889 to protect the congressional

04:19map drawn by California's Citizens Commission, and to preserve the map of every state until the

04:25next census. This measure has bipartisan support. It will prevent a chaotic redistricting war from

04:31breaking out across America. It will allow us to focus on the real issues facing our country.

04:36Today, I am calling on Speaker Mike Johnson to bring this measure to a vote on the House floor.

04:42Gerrymandering is a plague on our democracy, wherever it occurs. That's why I've also called for a

04:48bipartisan commission to end the practice once and for all. While almost everyone agrees political

04:54division has become a serious problem in this country, it's especially harmful when we can't agree on

04:59the basic rules of the road. We need to find common ground when it comes to the basic parameters for

05:05our politics. We can then disagree vigorously within those parameters on matters of policy

05:11and our vision for the country. That is what democracy is about. I yield back.

05:17The chair recognized

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