Commentary: A governor for red California, blue California or both? Redistricting fight poses that question

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We now have an estimated price tag for California’s special election and Gov.Gavin Newsom’s presidential rollout: $282.6 million.The Nov.

4 vote involves Proposition 50, which would gerrymander the state to boost Democratic chances of winning as many as five added House seats in the 2026 midterm election.The intent is to partially compensate for Republican gerrymanders in Texas and other states.The ballot measure has already done wonders to boost Newsom’s early standing in the 2028 presidential contest — emphasis on the word early.

After alienating many in his party by playing footsie with the likes of Steve Bannon and the late Charlie Kirk, Newsom has set hearts aflutter among those yearning for Democrats to “fight back against Trump,” to cite what has become the party’s chief animating principle and cri de cœur.One could ask whether the not-insignificant cost of the special election is the best use of taxpayer dollars, or if the sum would be better spent, as veteran GOP strategist Ken Khachigian suggested in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, “on firefighters, police officers, schoolteachers and road repairs.”Democratic consultant Jim Ross and his Republican consultant brother, Tom, say their affection and mutual regard is something no campaign can ever sunder — even in these contentious times.Newsom, in full barricade-manning mode, has said protecting our precious democracy is “priceless.”The chairman of California’s Democratic Party, Rusty Hicks, placed a more concrete price tag on the virtues of Proposition 50, suggesting to the Bay Area News Group that money spent on the special election would be offset — and then some — by the billions California would otherwise lose under President Trump’s hostile regime.There is, however, an added, if intangible, cost to Proposition 50: Effectively disenfranchising millions of conservative and ...