Politico reports that Democrats are reveling in Governor Gavin Newsom's redistricting victory known as Proposition 50 while "driving California Republicans even deeper into the political wilderness."
"Republicans surveying the landscape use words like 'demoralized,' 'massacred' and 'obliteration'," according to Politico's Jeremy B. White.
It's a "sad state," Politico notes, as "the gerrymander has left the state’s already marginalized GOP fighting over the four safe seats that remain."
Dave Gilliard, a veteran consultant who represents several House Republicans, tells Politico, “I’m sure Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are sitting back laughing and enjoying the havoc they’ve wreaked on the Republicans in California. It’s going to be crazy next year, no doubt about it.”
Describing the fallout as "carnage," Politico explains that California Republicans Young Kim and Ken Calvert "are forced into an intraparty melee over a new district that sucked in Republican voters from both of their current districts."
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) is also in a volatile situation, Politico notes, forced "to choose between districts designed for Democrats or a primary challenge to Rep. Tom McClintock."
Just last week it was reported that President Donald Trump has asked Rep. Darrell Issa(R-CA), who was eyeing a Senate run in Texas, to run in his current California seat “because they are worried a new person has no chance of winning it and the President thinks Darrell can.”
"Party veterans can only look on helplessly as they watch their colleagues battle for scraps," Politico notes.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), who has been targeted by the gerrymander, Politico explains, says "I was really hoping there’d be some type of agreement worked out that we wouldn’t have Republicans pitted against Republicans. That’s counterproductive and all it does is waste resources.”
Former California GOP Chair Jim Brulte says that "once a party has enacted a partisan gerrymander, it has little incentive to return to the way things were," Politico explains.
“I think this is like losing your virginity," Brulte says.
