California
California under pressure — again — as partisan redistricting wars escalate
WASHINGTON — When the U.S. Supreme Court sharply curtailed a key provision of the Voting Rights Act last week, Democrats in Washington had a message: The rules of redistricting have changed, and California — the nation’s biggest blue bastion — may have a further role to play.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Democrats should “play by the same set of rules” as Republicans. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) vowed to fight in “the Deep South and all over the country.” And Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat, was blunt: “I’ll take 52 seats from California, I sure would. And 17 seats from Illinois.”
The calls for action came as Republican governors in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississipppi and Tennessee called special legislative sessions to redraw congressional maps ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Florida has also approved new maps that could give the GOP four more seats in the House, and President Trump urged other Republican states to follow suit.
The Republican response has intensified the pressure on Democrats to act, including those in California — where the ruling could upend not just congressional maps, but also legislative and local races.
“We can’t allow this national gerrymandering effort of Republicans to go unanswered,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach). “If Republicans go for it, I think we have to leave all options on the table.”
For now, California’s response is far from settled.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) cautioned against “accelerating a race to the bottom.”
(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
The chair of the California Democratic Party said there are no current plans to redraw maps — just months after voters approved a constitutional amendment authorizing a mid-decade redistricting backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The Democratic consultant who drew the state’s current congressional district boundaries says an all-blue map, while possible to create, would probably hurt Democrats more than help them in the long run. And some of the state’s congressional Democrats are worried the impulse to match Republican partisan efforts would be bad for the American electorate.
“Rather than accelerating a race to the bottom, the next step is to dial it down because you can reach a point of no return,” said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), one of the state’s most prominent Black lawmakers. “And that’s where we’re headed.”
What California decides — and when — will matter at the national level. With 52 congressional seats, no state has more to offer Democrats in a redistricting war. But experts, lawmakers and party officials say the path forward is more complicated than the calls from Washington suggest.
California could see 48 blue seats, out of 52
That’s in part because California already acted. In 2025, voters approved Proposition 50, which drew new congressional district lines designed to favor Democrats for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections. The new maps, which could yield as many as 48 Democratic seats out of 52, are already in effect, and voters have begun receiving their mail-in ballots.
Going farther is not currently on the table — at least not yet.
“We have yet to fully win the seats in the map that was drawn in 2025. It seems a step too far to say we’re going to go back to the drawing board and redraw the map,” said Rusty Hicks, the chair of the California Democratic Party.
Hicks said it doesn’t mean the issue could not become part of a future discussion, but he said Democrats in other states should not look past what California has already done.
“We’re trying to pick up 48 of them. How much more do you want us to pick up? You want us to make it 52 blue? Well, you all should get into the fight,” Hicks said. “You all should pick up some seats. Let’s all do this together, because California cannot do it alone, it will take the rest of the country.”
Others are not convinced the most aggressive option makes the strategic sense in California.
Paul Mitchell, the Democratic redistricting consultant who drew California’s Proposition 50 congressional maps, said the push for a 52-0 delegation reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how a partisan map would perform in the state over time.
“A 52-to-zero map would have the potential of backfiring,” Mitchell said. “In 2026, we could pick up 52 seats. But then in 2028 or 2030 — a bad year for Democrats, let’s say — Democrats lose 11 of those seats. You’ve drawn these districts so demonically to a Democratic advantage in a good year that in a bad Democratic year, they don’t have the ability to withstand the challenge.”
Ruling could jeopardize state’s voting rights law
The political debate over congressional maps has so far dominated the conversation in Washington. But legal scholars and redistricting experts say the ruling could also have consequences in California’s city hall, school board and county supervisor races.
The justices’ ruling, decided by the court’s conservative majority, says states cannot consider race to create majority-minority electoral districts while allowing them take partisan interests into account.
“A purely partisan map is actually more defensible now than one drawn with racial considerations,” said Rick Hasen, an election law professor at UCLA. “It turns the world on its head.”
The ruling now puts at risk any district drawn at any level of government that relied on the Voting Rights Act to justify its boundaries, Hasen said.
And in California, that uncertainty extends to districts drawn under the state Voting Rights Act, which extends protections for minority voters beyond the federal law, he said. The state law was not directly at issue in the Supreme Court ruling, but Hasen argues the court’s reasoning could provide new legal grounds to challenge the state law as potentially unconstitutional.
Cities including Santa Monica and Palmdale have faced lawsuits alleging their at-large City Council elections diluted the Latino vote. Palmdale settled its case and agreed to switch to district-based elections; Santa Monica’s case is ongoing. Hasen argued that the cities, as well as other bodies, such as school boards, could now return to court to challenge whether district maps drawn as a result of the California Voting Rights Act are unconstitutional.
“That has not been tested yet,” he said, but he fears the same arguments made to challenge the federal Voting Rights Act could be made against the state law.
At the state level, Republican strategist Matt Rexroad sees the ruling affecting the California Legislature as well. He argues the boundaries drawn for the state Assembly and Senate districts are racial gerrymanders.
“Those legislative lines, I would argue, are unconstitutional,” Rexroad said. “And those lines are probably going to change by 2028.”
But Rexroad’s biggest concern goes beyond any single set of maps: It is the future of California’s independent redistricting commission, the nonpartisan body he has spent years defending.
A threat to independent redistricting
Rexroad sees a scenario in which the national political environment gives California Democrats little incentive to return the map-making power to the commission. If Republican states continue to aggressively redraw maps, Democrats will have another justification to keep power in the Legislature’s hands, the same argument made to pass Proposition 50, he said.
“I don’t think the California redistricting commission has ever been in greater jeopardy than it is right now,” he said.
J. Morgan Kousser, a historian who has testified as an expert witness in voting rights cases for 47 years, said California’s commitment to the commission may depend on how aggressive Republican states act in redistricting.
“If we go back to an all-white South in Congress, California may not go back to a fairness standard,” Kousser said. “It may not disarm. It may rearm.”
Mitchell, the redistricting consultant, said that he hopes California and other states choose the path of disarmament and that there is a national push for independent commissions in every state.
“This isn’t good for anybody,” he said. “This was all basically a nerd war over lines that didn’t actually improve any districts anywhere.”
The body of singer Oliver Tree was back in California this weekend after he was listed as a passenger on a helicopter that crashed above Rio de Janeiro one week ago.
His social media accounts on Sunday afternoon announced the return of his body after the June 14 collision of two helicopters, which killed all six people on board.
“Oliver is now back in California where he can finally rest,” the post said.
According to The Associated Press, police identified the five other people as Gaspar Prim Díaz, a popular Argentine YouTuber known as Gaspi; another Argentine, Lucas Vignale; and Brazilians Lucas Brito, Charles Marsillac and Alexandre Souza.
The cause of the collision was under investigation. The AP reported last week that authorities were investigating the possibility of human error by a pilot or air traffic controllers.
Tree, 32, had been performing in South America as part of a world tour. He had a show scheduled for June 6 in São Paulo, according to a schedule on his Facebook page.
The post Sunday thanked fans and supporters for an outpouring of devotion to the memory of the quirky and uplifting artist.
“The constant love, support and positivity is helping the family, friends and collaborators make it through these extremely difficult times,” it said.
Tree, whose real name was Oliver Tree Nickell, was from Santa Cruz. His father, Jesse Nickell, said he learned of his son’s death from a producer working on music with him in Brazil.
“Peace be with Oliver,” he said by text last week.
Tree was recognizable for his bright fashion, mullet haircut with prominent bangs, thin mustache and encouraging outlook. A motto on his Instagram account says, “No matter how strange you think you look, no matter how ugly you feel, you are beautiful.”
Tree also worked with marquee names in pop and electronic dance music. His biggest tracks were “Life Goes On,” which peaked at 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022, and “Miss You,” with German musician Robin Schulz, which peaked at 84 on the chart the same year.
Tree’s influence spread beyond chart data, however, and tributes poured in far and wide following last week’s news that he was on the passenger list of one of the aircraft.
The post on his social media accounts said he had been working on an endowment that would produce a grant and that the plan would be moving forward.
“‘Dr. Oliver Tree’s Extremely Epic Grant For Baby Geniuses’ coming soon,” the post said. “We will make sure his wish comes to fruition so that more joy, love and art can be spread into the world, that was his final wish.”
Speaking on the “Zack Sang Show” on YouTube in April, Tree discussed the grant and said his music was likely to be more valued after he died.
“That’s when people appreciate you, when you’re not there anymore,” he said.
The Instagram statement offered some assurance.
“Your legacy will live on forever,” it said.
California property owners can expect the nation’s steepest insurance premium hikes this year.
Nevertheless, that surge will leave California property owners paying below U.S. norms, according to my trusty spreadsheet‘s peek at a report by policy tracker Insurify. Its numbers reflect what private insurers charge to cover properties across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
For Californians, that means an estimated 16% jump in premiums for 2026. It’s the biggest jump in the country, four times the 4% hike a typical American faces.
Years of rising property damage are largely behind this, with the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires as the latest example.
After California, Nebraska is seeing a 13% increase, followed by New Mexico at 11% and Georgia at 10%. Meanwhile, policies are actually getting cheaper in Hawaii and Massachusetts (down 2%) and Maine (down 1%).
Relative bargain
Please do not be mad at me for relaying this insurance math.
Even after the 2026 increase, California property insurance remains a relative bargain compared with the rest of the country.
Lower California rates are one reason why many property owners have trouble finding coverage. State insurance regulation has made it difficult for insurers to raise their rates, even as their costs and risks surge.
Owners who cannot obtain insurance coverage most often use the state’s FAIR Plan. Those premiums are expected to rise by 29% next year.
Note that Insurify projects the average annual premium in California for 2026 will be $2,843, ranking 21st-highest among all states.
Do you know of many housing-related expenses where you can say California prices are 7% below the national norm?
The most expensive premiums are found in Florida at $8,458 per year, followed by Oklahoma at $5,205, Louisiana at $5,035, Nebraska at $4,560 and Texas at $4,529. These states face high risks from hurricanes, tornadoes or hail.
The cheapest insurance is in Vermont at $1,094 annually, followed by Maine at $1,359 and Utah at $1,370.
Even cheaper?
Keep in mind, the average Californian is insuring a very expensive property.
California insurance policies commonly cover $488,000 in repairs, according to Insurify. This is the second-highest amount among the states and 43% above the national average of $342,000.
Only Hawaii is higher at $500,000. The lowest policy coverage is in Oklahoma at $292,000.
Stack up what homeowners pay against how much coverage they get, and California’s pricing looks even more reasonable.
This premium-to-coverage ratio indicates that the typical Californian pays 0.6% of the coverage offered. That ranks No. 30 among the states and is one-third below the nation’s 0.9% ratio.
The highest ratios are in Florida (2.6%), Oklahoma (1.8%), Louisiana (1.7%) and Texas (1.4%). The lows were in Vermont, Alaska, the District of Columbia, New Hampshire and New Jersey, all at 0.4% or less.
Loss likelihood
If you own property in California, you probably already know this, but here’s a reminder of a never-ending risk: natural disasters.
My trusty spreadsheet also reviewed data from various government and industry sources to see how often disasters strike – and how much those ugly events cost. The incidents tracked include wildfires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards and hail.
To grade the 50 states and the District of Columbia on their relative natural disaster risks, five measures were developed that account for the frequency and damage of calamities, weighted against population and geographic size.
When you add it all up, California ranks third for the likelihood of expensive disasters.
Florida is the riskiest state, followed by Hawaii, California, Louisiana and Tennessee.
If you want a safer place, consider Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, or Wisconsin.
Of course, this is just a simple way to look at a complex problem that befuddles property owners, insurance companies and policymakers alike.
Clearly, these aren’t just California headaches. One-third of Americans live in 10 states with the highest risk.
How often
The history of disasters offers us clues as to where the next one may hit.
Look at the five measures used to create the risk rankings, starting with how often these disasters actually happen.
Using the number of federal disasters declared over the past decade and dividing that by each state’s square miles, California comes in at No. 9.
By this measure, the most disaster-prone are D.C., Rhode Island, Hawaii, Connecticut and Washington state. The least are Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Alaska and Michigan.
Next is the number of major storms per square mile.
California is much lower on this list, ranking 41st. The stormiest are D.C., New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii and Rhode Island. The calmest are Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Idaho.
The price tag
Think about what it costs to clean up after disasters. This is a major driver of home insurance premiums.
First, look at the dollar amount of damages divided by the number of people in each state. California ranks ninth-highest for disaster costs per person.
The biggest bills? Louisiana, Hawaii, Texas, Florida and Colorado. The smallest? Delaware, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Next, check out the cost per storm. California’s disasters are the fifth most expensive.
The most expensive storms happen in Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Oregon. The least expensive are in Delaware, Montana, Wyoming, Rhode Island and Kentucky.
Finally, if you look at insurance losses per person, California ranks fourth highest.
The largest insurance losses are in Colorado, Nebraska and Florida. After California, Wyoming is next. The lowest losses are in Utah, Hawaii, Nevada, Alaska and Oregon.
Clearly, the property-loss odds are stacked against Californians.
Skipping the costs
Some property owners take one look at their insurance bill and decide to go without.
LendingTree, using Census housing cost data, estimates 11% of California property owners have no homeowner’s insurance policy.
That’s the 11th-lowest level of no coverage among the states. The national rate is 14%.
West Virginia has the highest share of owners without coverage at 24%, followed by New Mexico at 23% and Louisiana at 21%. The fewest uninsured homes are in Colorado, Oregon and New Hampshire at 10%.
So why do so many Californians still pay for coverage?
Contemplate the estimated California premium against statewide household income to see that the cost is relatively affordable.
This 2.8% insurance-cost burden ranks No. 25 among the states. It’s also one-fifth of the nation’s 3.6%.
The highest burden? Florida at 11%, and Louisiana and Oklahoma at 8%. Lows? Vermont, New Hampshire, Utah and Maine, all 1%.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
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California
California man arrested for impersonating bank official, coercing money from Colorado victim
A 25-year-old California man is charged with three felonies after intercepting a package in Colorado containing $11,000 in cash he allegedly obtained via a computer scam.
Earlier this year, a Mesa County resident contacted authorities after receiving a message. The sender reportedly claimed to be an employee of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC is an independent agency created by the Congress that insures and oversees the banking industry.
The resident claimed the purported FDIC representative stated the resident’s bank account had been compromised and needed to be secured. The resident was instructed to send cash from the account to an address in southern California, according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.
The resident later chose to stop the shipment. But, according to the sheriff’s office, the box containing the cash was already in the process of being shipped.
A man later identified as Youbin Huang of El Monte, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb, came to the package’s location in Grand Junction and picked it up using documents which contained the Colorado resident’s personal information, per the sheriff’s office.
A nationwide warrant for Haung’s arrest was issued by the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 25. Huang was arrested by the California State Patrol on April 13, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office. Huang was brought to Colorado and booked into the Mesa County Detention Facility on May 10.
Huang is charged with theft, identity theft, and computer fraud, all felonies, and all state charges. He was advised June 11 and posted an $11,000 cash bond to obtain his release from jail that day. He has another court hearing on July 9.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office stated in its press release that Huang was “intimately involved in the perpetration of the scam.” It did not specifically state that Huang acted alone, nor if he was the person who impersonated an FDIC employee and communicated with the Colorado resident online.
MCSO recommended Coloradans never give out their personal or financial information to an unsolicited caller, allow remote access to their phones or computers, send gift cards or crypto currency as a form of payment, or send cash in the mail. As well, if they are unsure about what they are being asked to do, call law enforcement, family members, or a trusted friend to get advice.
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