Early reactions to ProPublica’s report
on the ways California Democrats manipulated the state’s citizen redistricting commission split along partisan lines.
The Chairman of California’s Republican
Party called for “an immediate and thorough investigation.”
“No fair
minded person can now say the process or the result was fair,” Chairman Tom Del
Beccaro said in a press release. “I am calling for an immediate
and thorough investigation, by Congressional and State authorities, to get
to the bottom of this obviously corrupted process. Beyond that, the
Congressional and Senate lines as drawn by the Commission should not be used in
any way for the upcoming elections.” (One note: The press release says our piece
detailed a “relationship between [commission] members
and officials from the DNC;” our story doesn’t note any such relationships.)
Del Beccaro has long been critical of the
redistricting commission.
In contrast, Democratic state party chair
John Burton told the San Francisco Chronicle that the story was “complete bulls..t, an absolute f..king
fabrication.”
“As the chair of the party, I know the
party didn’t do this…the Democratic Party didn’t do sh..t,” Burton said. “As
far as I was concerned, there was nothing you could goddamned do.” (Our story
detailed the maneuvering of congressional Democrats in Washington, and not
state Democrats such as Burton.) Update: Burton also released a statement calling ProPublica’s report “pure fantasy.”
A spokesman for the state Democratic Party
did not immediately return our request for comment.
Democratic strategist Bob Mulholland also
told the Chronicle that it would have been “easier to
influence North Korea” than influence the redistricting commission.
