Does SLO County redistricting map violate the law? Latino leaders ask state to intervene
A statewide group of Latino county leaders is concerned that San Luis Obispo County’s new redistricting map violates state law and is asking the California attorney general to intervene.
The Latino Caucus of California Counties — which includes District 3 Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg among its members — on Dec. 6 sent a letter to state Attorney General Rob Bonta laying out members’ fears that San Luis Obispo County and other jurisdictions are violating the state’s Fair Maps Act to the detriment of Latino candidates.
“We believe there will be some counties that, by December 15, will adopt maps that disregard (Fair Maps Act criteria) and may potentially attempt to gerrymander and exclude particular Latino incumbents or candidates that are the opposite political party from the majority membership of their respective Board of Supervisors.”
“We are specifically concerned with maps being considered in Butte, Merced, and San Luis Obispo counties, but there will likely be more after the final map adoptions,” the letter added.
The organization asks Bonta and his office to “contact these counties now prior to the December 15 final adoptions to place them on notices and also prepare to take swift action to seek judicial remedies and petition for injunctive relief against any counties that may be in violation of state law.”
The Tribune has reached out to Bonta’s office for comment.
SLO County will likely adopt Patten redistricting map on Tuesday
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will hold a hearing to consider adopting a redistricting map drawn by Arroyo Grande resident Richard Patten and backed by the local Republican Party.
Critics of the map have said it’s gerrymandered to help conservatives maintain their grip on the Board of Supervisors.
A recent Tribune analysis of voter registration data showed the the current five-district map already advantages Republicans, and the new map would further increase the party’s chances of winning future supervisor races by packing Democrats into two small coastal districts.
Ortiz-Legg has repeatedly expressed concerns about whether the county’s Latino communities were properly included in redistricting outreach. In addition, she said Patten’s map breaks Latino communities in the South County and North County away from more conservative districts, hurting their voting power.
Patten’s map moves Oceano out of District 4 into a new mid-coastal version of District 5, while also moving San Miguel out of District 1 into District 2. This breaks Oceano away from Nipomo, another town with a big Latino community.
Similarly, putting San Miguel in District 2 would separate that community from the Latino residents in Paso Robles.
“The map ... has the specific flaws — the dilution of the Latino voters in Oceano and San Miguel, thereby reducing their voting power for Latino candidates in Districts 4 and 1 in the future,” Ortiz-Legg said at the Dec. 7 board meeting.
Ortiz-Legg told The Tribune on Monday these Patten map changes are what the caucus is looking into, especially the situation in the South County.
“You can’t dilute Latino voters,” she said. “It needs to be exposed in regard to splitting apart Nipomo and Oceano Latinos.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 3:33 PM.
