A Gerry-Mandering Tale: Willie Brown and the 1981 California Redistricting

Bill Cavala has written a great article on how gerrymandering can shape a politician, and who doesn’t love a good Willie Brown story?

From the article:

“In the Assembly, then new Speaker Willie Brown was struggling to increase the 50% support he held among the Democrats while holding on to the Republican votes that had elected him the previous November. But Assembly redistricting proved difficult. The seats short of population were in Democratic areas (Bay Area, Los Angeles). Brown thought to resolve it by dropping a Republican seat in the Bay Area and a Democratic seat in LA. Republicans, believing a ‘fair’ redistricting would give them net gains, revolted. They withdrew their support for Brown. But Brown survived because the dissident Democrats closed ranks behind him.

Redistricting made Brown a Democratic Speaker in fact.”

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/much_at_stake_i.html

Filed under Historical Gerry-Mandering, News Articles | Comment (0)