Congressional Spotlight

California’s Congressional Landscape: A Promising Future of Change

The upcoming 2012 election year is poised to bring major changes in California’s Congressional representation, more so than in any election cycle in recent history. Two events are worthy of note. In 2010, California voters approved Proposition 20, the California Congressional Redistricting Initiative. The passage of this ballot measure transferred California’s elected State and Congressional representatives’ redistricting authority to an independent 14-member California Redistricting Commission (CCRC) comprised of statewide constituents. Furthermore, subsequent district borders derived from U.S. Census Bureau statistics have caused virtually every single California Congressional representative seat to enter the 2012 election cycle. Several veteran incumbents in deeply entrenched partisan neighborhoods now have a new constituent base with perhaps different ideological viewpoints. These two events could bring profound change to the face of California’s future political leadership, and we as CRNAs are presented with an extraordinary opportunity to influence changes for patient advocacy and health care access.

According to the 2010 Census, California’s Hispanic population grew by 28% over the past decade and Asian populations increased by 31%. These two groups also accounted for some of the biggest migration from coastal districts to inland areas. Due to the shift away from coastal cities toward inland and central suburbs, large urban areas such as the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego experienced shrinking boundaries. Conversely more rural eastern and northern county districts show expansion to meet the U.S. Supreme Court’s standards of Congressional district population equality.

While California’s overall population expanded at about the same rate as the national average of 10% over the previous decade, other states, such as Texas, saw more dramatic increases in population. For the first time in its history, California’s population growth was insufficient to successfully gain electoral seats in Washington, DC. Although California still has the most electoral votes of any state, it is important to understand how the newly drawn district lines affect Congressional power and present a particularly significant opportunity for CRNAs to become informed on how to drive changes in national health care delivery.

Next installment:
California’s Influential Congressional Representatives in Health Care: Who and Why.

Further reading:

California Citizens Redistricting Commission. State of California Citizens Redistricting Commission Final Report on 2011 Redistricting. August 15, 2011. http://www.Wedrawthelines.ca.gov

Redistricting in America: Recount, redraw, rethink. Rose Institute of State and Local Government. Claremont McKenna College. http://www.redistrictingamerica.org.

United States Census Bureau. 2010 Census Data. http://www.2010.census.gov/2010census/data/

 

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