California Governor Gavin Newsom’s effort to call a special election to allow for gerrymandering to create more Democratic Party-held congressional districts could cost the state’s taxpayers up to $250 million.
That’s according to Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego), who pointed out Tuesday that the governor was prepared to sacrifice the well-being of the state in pursuit of a purely partisan goal of redrawing districts.
California currently uses an independent redistricting commission — one dominated by Democrats anyway, as ProPublica demonstrated, and resulted in several Republican districts disappearing when it was adopted.
In a statement, DeMaio’s office said (original emphasis):
Gov. Gavin Newsom is threatening to call a Special Election statewide as soon as this November to cram through an amendment to the state constitution that would allow politicians to manipulate the lines of their districts in elections, thus ending the independent citizens’ redistricting model that California has used for years to keep the process non-partisan and fair.
Today, CA State Assemblymember Carl DeMaio released a cost estimate for a potential special election: $250 million!
“California faces a severe budget crisis and Gavin Newsom and state politicians are slashing programs for the neediest of Californians – so it is outrageous that Newsom thinks wasting $250 million on a corrupt scheme to let politicians manipulate their elections is a good idea,” DeMaio says.
Before being elected to the state legislature in 2024, DeMaio was a nationally recognized expert in government budget and accountability reform.
DeMaio’s $250 million cost estimate for a potential November 2025 election is based on the following methodology:
- The final cost of the statewide 2021 Governor Recall special election was $200,241,680. …
- Since 2021, the number of registered voters in California has increased by roughly 800,000, to 22,900,896 as of February 2025. This means more ballots will have to be issued, mailed, and processed.
- Inflation has increased significantly since 2021, with California state and local government salaries and benefits rising by 19%, and postage rates also increasing by 17%.
- DeMaio also expects several lawsuits to be filed related to Newsom’s redistricting scheme, which could force taxpayers to spend $5-10 million in additional fees.
“Gavin Newsom’s shameful attempt to end California’s non-partisan, citizen-led process for redistricting in favor of letting politicians draw their districts is not only unfair and an assault on our democracy, but it is financially irresponsible at a time when we face a serious state budget crisis,” DeMaio concluded.
There are only nine Republican members of the U.S. House in a delegation of 52 members (43 Democrats).
Newsom is trying to gerrymander the districts in response to redistricting in Texas, which is being mandated by the Department of Justice due to civil rights concerns (and cheered by President Donald Trump).
California suffered a $12 billion deficit this year, and an even lager deficit the year before, prior to budget cuts.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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