David Pandori, former central San Jose councilmember, recently wrote a letter to the SJ City Council daylighting the divisive and unworkable nature of the labor-backed gerrymander proposal for San Jose. The full text of Pandori's letter follows.

Planning Commissioner Pierluigi Oliverio decries what appears to be the use of special technology by progressive groups to manipulate election results via the redistricting process.

In a rare turn of unanimity against local labor interests, both the San Jose Mercury News Editorial Board and San Jose Inside news desk ("The Fly") have come out critical of the county's discredited "Yellow Map" redistricting proposal. The "Yellow Map" would take away Right of Candidacy for more conservative politicians, suppress the Vietnamese vote, and is shot full of ethical and legal policy debacles. Excerpts from both publications below.

If you've ever thought "this is too divisive" while listening to arguments and comments in city politics, you've got company with Irene Smith, candidate for San Jose's D3 council seat. Smith has a masters in Family and Child Counseling and a PhD in Psychology. At the Santa Clara County small claims court, she has heard over 2,000 cases. Smith sits down with Opp Now's Christopher Escher for a discussion about what the redistricting kerfuffle says about the city's mental health and the hope for cooperative problem-solving.

A Working Partnership representative, on October 11, sent a letter to the City that contained transparently false claims about key elements of the discredited "Unity" redistricting map. Members of the Community Map support team called out the inaccuracies, as outlined below.

Earlier this month, SJ Councilwoman Dev Davis kicked off an initiative campaign to reverse SB9, Sacramento's heavy-handed takeover of residential zoning authority. Davis, in a SJ Merc op-ed, argues that SB9 stifles local control and won't even guarantee an increase in affordable housing. Councilmember Matt Mahan provides additional perspective, as do council hopefuls Bien Doan, Irene Smith, and Ramona Snyder. Both Davis and Mahan are SJ mayoral hopefuls.

Bad-faith redistricting does not honor and respect established communities of interest, and instead favors partisan political interests. Gilroy Mayor Marie Blankley argues that the proposed union-backed county gerrymander, also known as the Yellow Map, is an example of bad-faith redistricting, as it would dilute south county residents' voting power.

Word that the county Supervisors bizarrely moved forward with the discredited, labor-backed Yellow "Unity" redistricting map (see here) prompted widespread condemnation across the local political spectrum. Councilwoman Dev Davis, Councilmember Matt Mahan, and Planning Commission Pierluigi Oliverio chime in with their concerns.

Local Asian American leaders repudiated the dilution of Asian-American voting power in the labor-backed county redistricting plan, noting it runs contrary to population, community, and geographic realities.

The redistricting process can appear arcane, but concerned residents should be wary of the redrawing of political boundaries, as the process can be done in bad faith and with nefarious goals. Jackson Reese, vice president of the California Policy Center, outlines what citizens should be on the watch for when local politicians start messing with the maps.