Introduction
Introduction Statistics Contact Development Disclaimer Help
.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Schwarzenegger urges Californians to oppose Newsom’s redistricting
plan
By Arit John, CNN
Updated:
5:23 PM EDT, Mon September 15, 2025
Source: CNN
, the action star and former Republican governor of California, urged
voters in the state to oppose , a ballot initiative backed by Democrats
that would allow the party to temporarily redraw the state’s
congressional maps.
“I hate to get political here, but this is not political. This is
more about democracy,” he said during an appearance at the University
of Southern California on Monday. “If you vote yes on that, we go
backwards.”
The comments mark the former governor’s first major public appearance
against redistricting since Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom led the effort
to put a proposition on the November ballot to override the state
Constitution and redraw the state’s congressional maps through 2030.
Last month, he working out in a shirt that said “Terminate
Gerrymandering.”
The proposed maps could give Democrats five additional congressional
seats in the state. Democrats have argued they needed to respond to
Texas, where Republicans to potentially give the GOP five seats at the
behest of President Donald Trump.
Schwarzenegger, who backed the ballot initiatives that created the
independent commission drawing the state’s congressional and state
lines, said Democrats want to “dismantle” the commission. Under the
Newsom-backed referendum, the state would return to congressional maps
drawn by the commission in 2032.
“They want to get rid of it under the auspices of, ‘We have to
fight Trump.’ Doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said, saying that
Democrats want to “become Trump” to fight the president. “Two bad
behaviors don’t make a right behavior. Two wrongs don’t make a
right.”
Schwarzenegger appeared at the University of Southern California’s
International Day of Democracy celebration, where he was interviewed by
the university’s interim president and took questions from students.
One student asked why the redistricting push matters in light of
“more existential issues” involving the Supreme Court and the
government’s use of the National Guard. Schwarzenegger said that
supporters of Prop 50 were making excuses about the need to redraw the
maps and voters shouldn’t get “sidetracked” with arguments about
what’s happening nationally.
“I don’t think that they use it for any other purpose other than
weakening democracy in California, to be honest with you,” he said.
“I think that we have to do everything that we can to educate the
people and to make sure that the people understand that the politicians
want to take the power away from the people here in California.”
At one point, the former governor pointed out four former commissioners
sitting in the front row and asked if they had been invited to help
draw the proposed congressional maps. They had not.
“It was the politicians that drew the maps, and there was no one from
the public at all participating in this process,” he said. “They
are trying to fight for democracy by getting rid of the democratic
principles of California.”
Schwarzenegger, who served as governor from 2003 to 2011, said he
realized while he was in office that the maps incentivized candidates
running to the left of sitting Democrats or the right of sitting
Republicans.
“I could see, when I was sitting as governor, how we couldn’t get
things done because of the way the districts were drawn,” he said.
After a ballot initiative he backed to have judges draw the lines
failed, voters approved a 2008 ballot initiative to mandate that an
independent commission would draw state legislative maps. A second
measure, in 2010, allow congressional maps to also be drawn by the
commission.
“We lost and we lost and we lost, but eventually the people voted
yes, and we had, all of a sudden, an independent commission to draw the
district lines,” he said. “So we were true leaders in
California.”
A spokesperson for “Yes on 50,” the coalition backing the
referendum, did not respond directly to Schwarzenegger but focused on
Trump instead.
“Voting Yes on 50 is California’s best chance of blocking Trump’s
unprecedented redistricting power grab,” spokesperson Hannah Milgrom
said in a statement. “If Trump is able to steal unchecked power for
two more years, he’ll have free reign to keep up his assault on our
rights - taking away healthcare, denying a woman’s right to choose,
and cutting funding for universities — including 400m from USC
alone.”
<- back to index
You are viewing proxied material from codevoid.de. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.