Sept. 20, 2025 7 AM PT
To the editor: Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urges California voters to reject redistricting/gerrymandering, to vote towards Proposition 50 (“Schwarzenegger decries polarization, criticizes Newsom’s gerrymandering effort,” Sept. 15). He argues that we shouldn’t battle for democracy by abandoning democratic rules.
Schwarzenegger, your downside isn’t with the voters of California. It’s with the legislators and voters of Texas, Missouri and different pink states, and with the president of america.
Democrats are sometimes (rightfully) accused of being too passive, of not combating again. In regular occasions, I wouldn’t need Prop 50; I don’t know anyone who would. However I see no various.
Richard Shafarman, Santa Clarita
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To the editor: Schwarzenegger is being disingenuous. Prop 50 is extraordinarily democratic. In contrast to Texans, Californians will get to vote on whether or not they wish to go ahead with redistricting. There will probably be an election. The map will probably be on the poll. Moreover, Prop 50 doesn’t “dismantle,” as Schwarzenegger stated, the unbiased fee. Prop 50 is designed to run out and reestablish the unbiased fee.
Look, no one (besides these in search of an influence seize) likes gerrymandering. It’s dishonest. Preventing again towards a cheater doesn’t make you a cheater, and standing as much as a bully within the White Home doesn’t make you a bully. California didn’t choose this battle. However we can’t simply lie down and let authoritarian wannabes roll proper over us. Prop 50 is clear, it’s momentary, and for those who don’t just like the path we’re headed, voting “Sure“ is one in every of our final finest possibilities to show this bus round.
JB Newton, Studio Metropolis
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To the editor; In 2010, California voters overwhelmingly handed Proposition 20, 62.2% to 38.8%, giving congressional redistricting authority to an unbiased 14-member citizen fee. Having been an energetic supporter of that measure, I have to vehemently disagree with the feelings expressed by sitting commissioner and visitor contributor Isra Ahmad in her help of the present Prop 50 (“You’re voting in a rigged sport. That’s why Prop 50 issues,” Sept. 17).
When President Trump coaxed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott right into a mid-decade redrawing of Texas’ congressional districts to offer the GOP a possibility to win extra seats within the 2026 election 12 months, Gov. Gavin Newsom felt compelled to reply along with his personal gerryrigged gamesmanship to offer the Democrats further seats by nullifying the conscientious work of our state’s residents fee.
Not solely do two wrongs not make a proper, however in recent times, each main political events have engaged in an accelerated race to the underside through which the pursuit of political energy, by any means mandatory, has been all that issues.
On Nov. 4, California voters can have a possibility to withstand this farcical train by voting a powerful “No” on Prop 50.
Jim Redhead, San Diego
