S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hyneman. On today's show , we spotlight art and activism in San Diego's Filipino community. This Filipino-American History Month. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. By now , I'm sure you've heard all about proposition 50. California voters have until next Tuesday , November 4th , to vote on whether the state should redraw its congressional maps with just , you know , about a week to go before voting is over. We wanted to check in on where the race stands and how fundraising is going on both sides. Joining me to do that is Jeanie Kwong. She's Capitol reporter with Cal Matters. Hey , Jeannie. Hi.
S2: Hi. Thanks for having me.
S1: Well , thanks for joining us. So let's first just take a minute to talk about what's on the ballot.
S2: In case you haven't been inundated in the ads. Proposition 50 is a measure that would allow California to use new congressional maps drawn by Democrats for the next three congressional elections. And it would essentially , um , put into place maps that give Democrats the advantage in five seats , squeezing out five Republican congresspeople. And this was proposed by Governor Gavin Newsom over the summer after President Donald Trump , um , pushed for Republican led gerrymandering in red states , including Texas , where Republicans passed a map to gain five GOP seats there. So Newsom put this forward as , uh , the response to that to try to cancel out that effort. But because the state uses an independent , nonpartisan redistricting Commission to draw their congressional lines. In order to set those maps aside , it would have to go to voters.
S1: And , you know , delve more into the details here because isn't it like kind of we're putting the proposal here is to put that redistricting commission kind of on hold. Is that a kind of a fair way to look at it ? Yeah.
S2: That's right. It would temporarily suspend the maps that the that the independent commission drew back , you know , after the 2020 census. Um , so we had used those maps in the 2022 congressional elections as well as last year in 2024. And so this would put those on hold. Um , we won't use those anymore. We would use the new maps that have already been drawn , um , that you can look at online. Um , and those would go into place for the midterms next year as well as in 2028 and 2030. And then it would go back to using the independent commission to draw new maps after the 2030 census.
S1: Got it. All right. So earlier you mentioned the ads that I think a lot of us I definitely have seen a lot of these ads. And of course , those ads cost money. Right. You're reporting kind of broke down the fundraising.
S2: I'd say there's actually two campaigns against proposition 50. There's two no on 50 campaigns , but collectively they've probably raised around half of the over 90 million that the yes campaign has raised. They the yes campaign has had , um , you know , kind of big donors from House Democrats to George Soros , uh , Foundation and , um , some major kind of , you know , business people , some major Democratic Party mega donors , but they also have gotten tens of thousands of donations from small dollar donors from , you know , those kind of like $50 , $100 , a few hundred dollars contributions from , uh , regular people both around the state and also around the country. Um , the no side is mostly raising money from a or has mostly raised money from Charles Munger Jr. He's a wealthy physicist who is a Republican , but mostly doesn't really play in politics at all. He's just really dedicated to nonpartisan redistricting. And he funded the ballot measures in the past that put the system into place for California. And he's back here. He's putting $30 million into the no campaign to protect that system. Um , and then other than that , you do have some contributions from House Republicans to the no side , but it is quite lopsided. The fundraising has very much favored the yes side.
S1:
S2: Yeah. I mean , I hate to make predictions , but it was definitely pretty close for most of this election cycle. A quick election cycle. And it was it was pretty neck and neck for a while. The latest poll that came out last week indicated that prop 50 is in the majority , and it was looking like late last week that this is likely to pass. Of course , we don't know yet and there are many undecided voters. It's such a partisan measure , and there are so many Californians who are no party preference or who are independents , and that's definitely the group that both campaigns are trying to target these last few weeks here. Those people who , you know , maybe are not a hardcore Democrat might be dissatisfied with the party. Um , you know , the the no campaign is hoping that they will not want to give more power to Democratic politicians. Um , and so that's who I think will be a big determining factor here.
S1: We have about two minutes left. But I did want to ask you , you know , one of the , you know , voting blocs that you wrote about that kind of remain quite undecided or , you know , California's Latino voters. Talk to me about that and how that could play a role in whether prop 50 passes or not. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I mean , I just think this group of voters , obviously , they're the largest racial group in the state , and they make up a big share of the electorate. And this particular group has just been a really kind of swinging demographic. Um , you know , we we saw , um , Latino voters and , and voters of all races , uh , shifting rightward a bit in 2024. Um , and so it's a big question of , of how much , um , issues like how the economy is currently doing under Trump , how much concerns about immigration enforcement are going to bring them back to the Democratic Party or bring them back to a Democratic Party , back to measure. Um , and yeah , so there's been a lot of outreach by the yes campaign to try to sway Latino voters to their side on this measure , um , highlighting things like Senator Alex Padilla being handcuffed by the Homeland Security Department outside a press conference in LA this past summer , highlighting , you know , the immigration enforcement , highlighting potential cuts to social services at the federal level. All of these things to try to bring back this group of voters.
S1: Well , still , you know , a lot of time left , but it will be interesting to see where this goes. Jeannie Kwong is Capitol reporter with Cal Matters. I want to thank you for joining us. And , you know , sharing more about where we are with prop 50. We appreciate it.
S2: Thanks so much.
S1: That's our show for today I'm Andrew Bracken. KPBS Midday Edition airs on KPBS FM weekdays at noon , again at 8 p.m.. You can find past episodes at KPBS or wherever you listen. Thanks again for listening. Have a great day.
California voters have until next Tuesday, Nov. 4, to vote on Proposition 50 — which would allow the state to temporarily redraw its congressional maps.
With about a week to go before voting is done, we check in on where the race stands and how fundraising is going on both sides.
Guest:
