By Mario Conde
The California state redistricting commission approved its preliminary final maps for congressional and state legislative electoral districts last Friday.
The independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission voted to move its preliminary final maps to the public review stage and will vote on adoption of the maps on August 15, 2011. The votes brought the Commission a step closer to issuing final maps for U.S. Congressional, State Senate, State Assembly and Board of Equalization districts. This is the first time in the history of California that an independent citizen’s commission drew district boundaries. County Intergovernmental relations, Bob Ham, presented to the County Board of Supervisors the new political boundaries for the next ten years.
Imperial County will remain part of Riverside at the State Assembly and will now be the 56 District. Manuel Perez will remain as the Assembly member for this district and for the Imperial Valley. The original proposal was to align Imperial Valley to El Cajon in the Assembly and the State Senate. County Board Chairman Jack Terrazas went and spoke before the commission and asked them to keep Imperial
since they have many issues in common such as agriculture, water, and the Salton Sea.
Terrazas also asked the congressional district to be kept with south San Diego and the border since they need to deal with border trade issues.
The 51st Congressional District will stay the same but it will now include Imperial Beach. Congressman Bob Filner (D-Chula Vista) decided to step down from his congressional seat in order to run for San Diego Mayor next year. Rumors began circulating last week that former State Senator Denise Moreno-Ducheny could be running for congress now that Imperial Beach was added to the congressional District.
The 40th State Senate District has a couple of changes now that the new map does not include the city of residence of State Senator Juan Vargas but Ham says he could continue to serve as the 40th District Senator by moving into to the area. Vargas filed to run for Congress in the 51st Congressional District but does not live in the congressional area either. Ham said that is not required for a candidate for congress to live in the area they intend to run for.