If conservative SLO County supervisors want Patten map, they must defend the indefensible

After narrowing redistricting maps down to two finalists, today the Board of Supervisors will choose the one that will remain in effect for the next 10 years.

The stakes are enormous.

One of the two — Richard Patten’s map — gives the Republican Party a strong advantage. That’s a clear violation of state Elections Code, which prohibits adopting boundaries that favor or discriminate against a political party.

One group, Citizens for Preserving District 4, has aptly called the Patten map a Trojan horse that “first surfaced as a humble, aw shucks ‘notes on a napkin’ format.”

The local GOP denies any political motivation; yet how convenient that the map they are championing is the very one that will help them retain their majority on the Board of Supervisors, even though they are outnumbered by Democrats countywide.

Make no mistake, their lobbying efforts have been remarkable. They included multiple email blasts and in-person tutorial sessions aimed at coaching conservatives on how to sneak their Trojan horse past the gatekeepers. Yet they have not clearly articulated why Patten’s map is so superior to the others.

Their main talking point focused on the city of San Luis Obispo, which is currently divided among three districts.

Some say that gives the city of SLO an unfair advantage, which is absurd on its face.

Others argue that the city, along with Cal Poly, is clearly one community of interest and should be kept whole.

The Patten map was supposed to cure that by placing the city, along with Cal Poly, into one district.

Except that’s not true. The Patten map still splits the city into two districts.

Far-reaching effects

If this exercise was aimed at keeping SLO in one district, it failed.

Instead, it manages to skewer the entire map in the supposed effort to keep the city of SLO whole.

It splits the North Coast into three districts — diluting the influence of coastal voters and, incidentally, making it much harder for Democrat Bruce Gibson to win reelection because he would pick up all of more-conservative Atascadero while losing Los Osos and Morro Bay.

It also moves the heavily Democratic community of Oceano out of District 4, helping ensure the reelection of Republican Lynn Compton.

Research by Todd Matthew Stump, a data analyst and political consultant, shows that under the Patten map, three of the five SLO County supervisor districts — 1, 2 and 4 — would be majority Republican.

That would be achieved by “packing” Democrats into Districts 3 and 5, according to the research privately funded by county residents opposed to the Patten map.

The biggest changes would occur in District 2, a Democratic stronghold that would wind up with a small Republican majority, and in District 5, a Republican majority district that would be transformed into a heavily Democratic one.

What’s more, all this shifting of boundaries means significant number of voters who are supposed to vote in the 2022 election won’t vote until 2024, while others who voted in 2020 will be able to vote again in 2022.

That was reason enough for the nonpartisan League of Women Voters to oppose the Patten map.

“(We) oppose adoption of the Patten map because it seriously impacts the right to vote and does not provide for fair representation,” the group wrote in a letter to the editor.

The Chamber map

The only other map still under consideration was proposed by the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce. It leaves the political makeup of the districts almost unchanged, though District 2 would have a slightly smaller Democratic majority.

It also makes far fewer boundary changes: The North Coast remains in one district; Oceano is still in District 4; the city of SLO is still divided among three districts. However, it splits Atascadero between two districts.

The conservative on the Board of Supervisors may use that as justification for choosing the Patten map over the Chamber map.

If so, the three should be prepared to justify their reasons.

Why is it OK to split the North Coast, but not the city of Atascadero? If anything, more of an effort should be made to keep unincorporated “communities of interest” together, since the Board of Supervisors is their primary form of local government.

For that matter, why is it OK to divide SLO between two districts — as the Patten map does — but not three?

Legal consequences

Until now, the board majority has been tight-lipped about its reasons for summarily rejecting the status quo and instead, giving the nod to a map that is blatantly intended to advance Republican interests.

This is not the time to be silent; not with so much riding on the outcome of today’s vote.

County residents deserve to have their valid questions answered, and it’s the duty of the three conservative supervisors to treat their concerns with requisite seriousness, clearly explaining why this radical redraw is more worthy, if they go that way.

Chances are, the county will wind up being sued no matter which map is chosen, but it owes it to county voters and taxpayers to carefully consider the legal consequences of its decision.

Just because a parade of conservative speakers pronounces the Patten map to be the only “legal” map doesn’t make it so, and complaints that the current map is illegal and must be corrected by some radical revision are equally unfounded.

Remember, the current map, adopted following the 2010 census, withstood a legal challenge that went to the Court of Appeal.

Among other arguments, the lawsuit claimed the map unnecessarily divided the community of Templeton and the city of San Luis Obispo.

The court denied the appeal.

The written ruling noted that the board had to take the entire county into account, “not only the desires of Templeton residents.”

We strongly urge each of the five supervisors to take the entire county into account today — and not the desires of a political special interest group that will stop at nothing to retain control.

This decision may well be the most important one the current board will ever make.

Adopting the Patten map would be a travesty that would split the county apart. To the conservative board majority, please, do not let that be your legacy.