Schwarzenegger Ready To Fight Newsom On Redistricting

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is ready to campaign against a partisan gerrymandering plan that current officeholder Gavin Newsom is hoping to place on the November ballot, according to a spokesperson.

“He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that. He thinks it’s truly evil for politicians to take power from people,” said Schwarzenegger spokesperson Daniel Ketchell. “He’s opposed to what Texas is doing, and he’s opposed to the idea that California would race to the bottom to do the same thing.”

California’s last Republican governor was the leading man behind the pair of constitutional amendments that more than a decade ago yanked authority for drawing legislative districts from politicians and placed it in the hands of a newly created independent commission. After the successes of those two measures at the California ballot, Schwarzenegger campaigned for similar changes (with mixed results) in Michigan, Colorado, Virginia and Ohio.

Now, the fight has returned to his home state, as Newsom aims to redraw California’s U.S. House maps before the midterm elections to offset a similar Republican-led effort unfolding in Texas. Since such a move would undo the constitutional language added by the Schwarzenegger amendments, it would require voter approval. Newsom said today he is “very” confident he can secure the two-thirds legislative supermajority he would need to put the question on a November special-election ballot.

Schwarzenegger is preparing to take a starring role in a “No” campaign, reuniting many of the forces that came together in 2008 to pass Prop 11 (which created the commission for California legislative maps) and in 2010 for Prop 20 (which extended its authority to congressional maps). Several of the leading outside groups that gave good-government ballast to the earlier efforts — including the League of Women Voters and California Common Cause — are challenging Newsom’s proposal.

Philanthropist Charles Munger Jr., the most significant benefactor to the redistricting measures, began last month to commission polls and focus groups as he assembles a team for another ballot campaign, POLITICO reported last week. Munger, the son of Warren Buffett’s business partner, emerged as one of the California Republican Party’s leading funders during Schwarzenegger’s governorship.

Schwarzenegger was first elected upon the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis and went on to win a full term in 2006. After leaving government and returning to acting, he has remained involved in politics on a few issues that advisers say he considers central to his legacy, including climate change and independent redistricting. His Netflix action comedy “FUBAR” is currently in its second season.

Schwarzenegger has also emerged as a prominent antagonist of President Donald Trump, whom he called “un-American” while endorsing Kamala Harris in last year’s election. A redistricting campaign could find the two former “Celebrity Apprentice” hosts campaigning alongside one another, as Trump argues a Democratic gerrymander would be a threat to Republican dominance and Schwarzenegger argues for the integrity of a nonpartisan process.

“It’s too early right now for him to fully unleash the standard Arnold gerrymandering stump speech,” Ketchell said. “But it’ll come.”

This reporting first appeared in California Playbook PM.