Fredrich Bahrke moved to Lakeside 25 years ago, lured by the ranch-style homes that dot its open landscape and the slower pace of life in the town of 63,000.
“I’ve always been an out-in-the-country kind of boy. The rural life is more comfortable for me,” Bahrke said.
This portion of San Diego County, known as East County, is divided by its rural and urban areas in U.S. House maps. Lakeside sits in contrast to the county’s eastern, urban core on the outskirts of Democratic-leaning cities El Cajon and La Mesa.
Rural regions such as Lakeside and Blossom Valley in the 48th House district are represented by longtime Republican Congressmember Darrell Issa, while the nearby cities of El Cajon and Lemon Grove are represented by Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs of the 51st District.
Proposition 50, the November ballot measure to temporarily draw new House maps to give California Democrats an advantage, proposes to join San Diego’s rural and urban East County together in an effort to weaken Republican voting power in an area known for its stalwart conservatism.
“I don’t like that they’re changing that and lumping us in the urban areas,” Bahrke, a 65-year-old former Naval officer, said. “It’s going to put us in a district with people with very different views in our area.”
Republicans drawing new partisan maps in Texas is not the same as California’s attempt because its state constitution allows it to do so, Bahrke said.
Under the proposed maps, the 48th District, which Issa now represents, would take on more Latino voters to become more competitive in the 2026 midterm elections and the following two election cycles.
Once the head of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa has represented parts of San Diego County for decades and built a positive reputation in the GOP for leading a series of investigations of the Obama administration.
Issa has cruised to reelection in the last two elections, but took a two-year break when he didn’t seek re-election in 2018, after his previous district became increasingly Democratic.
Merging ideologically distinct communities
The Republican-leaning Lakeside is 64% white and has a median household income of $103,000 — 14% higher than the $90,000 median in La Mesa, where about half the population is white, according to a 2023 San Diego County report.
Liberal Palm Springs, which would move into the proposed 48th District, is nearly 64% white and has a household income of $69,000, according to a 2023 city report.
Candidates running in the proposed new district would likely need to focus on affordability to appeal across its rural and urban regions, according to UC San Diego political scientist Thad Kousser.
“It will create a dynamic where a Democratic candidate will be looking both to capture moderate voters, but also to galvanize voters in deep blue Palm Springs,” Kousser said.
This marriage of ideologically distinct communities would be among many under the proposed gerrymandered maps, such as Northern California’s remote ranching towns being tied to parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Some districts would also move into wholly different parts of the state. East of San Diego, the district Republican Rep. Ken Calvert represents would move entirely outside of Riverside County into Los Angeles County, which would give Democrats a more than 10 percentage point advantage in voter registration.
Calvert, who represents the 41st District, is a 17-term congressmember and one of the longest-serving legislators in Washington. He’s faced some of the most competitive races of his political career since the last decennial census redrew his U.S. House seat, which led to both parties pouring millions of dollars into his last two races. Calvert narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent, former prosecutor Will Rollins, in 2022 and 2024.
If voters approve Prop. 50, many residents currently in Calvert’s district would move into the 48th District and Republican-controlled 40th District in Orange County.
Tucked away in the San Jacinto Mountains southwest of Palm Springs, Mary Rider, a retired community college counselor in Idyllwild, said her support for Prop. 50 is a “moral decision.”
She and other Riverside County voters would be shifted into the more competitive 48th District if voters approve the measure.
“If we have to break a rule, so to speak, to make sure what’s best for everyone occurs, we break that rule,” Rider said. She agrees with the argument that Prop. 50 is the only way to respond to Republicans gerrymandering in Texas and other states.
Districts are typically drawn at the beginning of the decade after the U.S. Census. Most state legislatures create their own congressional maps, but in California, voters approved an independent redistricting commission of regular citizens to draw the maps. Prop. 50 asks voters to temporarily suspend the independent maps for three cycles in favor of the ones drawn by Democrats.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said the measure is in response to Texas Republicans drawing their own maps in favor of Republicans ahead of the 2026 elections to make it easier for them to maintain control of the House.
A handful of Democratic hopefuls are eyeing seats in both districts, including a public school teacher and a San Diego city councilmember. But all prospective candidates, including deep-seated congressmembers Calvert and Issa, are in limbo until after the November special election.
So far, the Yes campaign has raised a whopping $97 million and is bolstered by star-powered ads featuring the likes of former President Barack Obama. The No side has drawn in less than half of that, at $42 million.
A message to lawmakers
Nickie Watts of Palm Desert, views Prop. 50 as a tool to hold Calvert accountable.
“I have never seen him. You don’t really hear about him,” said Watts, who says she has lived in Palm Desert for decades. “He’s like an invisible human.”
Calvert, like a majority of GOP members across the country, has abstained from doing in-person town halls where constituents outraged over Republican support of President Donald Trump’s policies have become common.
“Gerrymandering districts because you disagree with the outcome of an election is politics at its worst,” spokesperson Calvin Moore said of voters supporting Prop. 50 in response to Calvert’s record.
Issa has similarly faced mounting criticism from his constituents for not holding any in-person town halls this year.
A spokesperson for Issa, Jonathan Wilcox, dismissed the idea that constituents upset with Issa’s voting record could play a role in Prop. 50 passing.
“I don’t dispute that Democrats around the country are opposed to the policies of the congressman and Republican Party,” he said.
Maree Doden, a 74-year-old former city employee in Palm Desert, said she is a Democrat but is worried about the precedent that approving partisan maps would set. She said Texas gerrymandering its own maps was not a strong enough reason to retaliate.
“I am not a fan of President Trump,” she said. “But this just felt like you’re taking a process and you’re now saying, ‘Let’s dump that process and all the work we took in passing it and throw that out the window.’”
