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| CA Governor Gavin Newsom signs the Election Rigging Response Act to save Democracy Source: Cal Matters |
Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
HEO/GED
08-26-25
Electoral warfare
It seems we’re preparing for war here in California.
Back in June, Donald Trump pressured Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s Congressional maps to favor Republican candidates, undermining Democratic Party power in the state and most importantly, increasing the number of Republican seats in the US House of Representatives where that party has a very slim majority.
We have an intense electoral competition every four years between two capitalist parties over who gets to govern society and reap all the benefits thereof.
Putting it bluntly, the Texas move is a political power grab. It is clearly harmful to working class and poor people as any strengthening of the Republican Party over workers’ lives is a recipe for poverty and in many instances a death sentence. Those Democrats and others that have condemned it as a very bad undemocratic move are right.
In response, California’s Governor Newsom has picked up the baton and has become the leading Democrat in the fight against Trumpism, electorally anyway. Initially Newsom had threatened to do a bit of redistricting of his own that could cost Republicans half their Congressional seats in the state and, if successful, change the balance of power in the US House of Representatives
Many never took the threat seriously as gerrymandering is frowned upon and California has an independent redistricting commission that was given the power to draw electoral boundaries by the voter in 2012, taking it out of the hands of the state legislature.
But Newsom introduced new electoral maps at a rally on August 15th and has called a Special Election for November 4th in order to get support for his proposal from the California voter.
The legislation is called Proposition 50 and normally thousands of signatures are required to get a proposition on the ballot. But the California constitution allows it if it is passed by two thirds of the state legislature. As California is a Democratic Party stronghold, a one-party state basically, Governor Newsom’s Proposition passed and the campaigning has already begun.
The issue is very controversial as the independent citizen commission is very popular and was considered a huge victory taking the drawing of electoral boundaries out of the hands of the politically charged legislature with both parties at war over voting power.
Naturally, the state’s Republicans are opposed to Proposition 50 and lots of money is being spent on both sides of the issue. The state-run election is expected to cost about $250 million. The hypocrisy of California’s Republican Party is evident opposing Newsome’s redistricting for overriding the electoral commission and “Undermining our Democracy”. Meanwhile, the Republican Party introduces similar legislation in Texas.
The Democrats are just as bad introducing what is termed the “Election Rigging Response Act” as a strategy against a rival party’s election rigging in Texas and claiming that they are defending democracy. It’s no wonder American’s have come to despise politics and politicians and have abandoned the electoral process in their millions. Newsom and the Democrats are saying the legislation is only temporary until 2030 and we’ll see how that goes.
Is This the Best Democrats Can Offer Workers?
I am opposed to this legislation. It doesn’t serve the interests of working class people to support legislation that gives the Democratic Party more power over our lives that it already has? Same goes for the other capitalist party. This is electoral warfare between two parties that represent the US capitalist class including the billionaires among them. California is home to 200 billionaires, 82 of them in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live. The same three billionaires, that sat behind Trump at his inauguration would be just as supportive of Newsom or any Democrat that occupied the Oval Office. They own both parties.
There are many Californians that are uncomfortable with Newsom’s Electoral Rigging Act as it is electoral rigging, but Trump is so despised I can’t see Newsom’s Prop 90 being defeated. Either way, Newsom is the Democratic Party’s front runner for President in 2028 and this is a major campaign booster.
But the most important lesson workers should draw from this episode and Newsom’s proposal is how quickly the political process works when they need it to. This measure has gone from a threat from Newsome to a place on the ballot in a few weeks made possible by the legislature which the Democrats control. It’s akin to Biden and Pelsosi’s anti-union legislation that they introduced to Congress overnight when rail workers threatened a crippling strike in 2024. Both Democrats and Republicans united on that one. No problem reaching across the aisle when it comes to workers’ rights or profits.
Workers can’t look to the Democrats to defend democracy and as the statistics show, are hungry for a political alternative to the two capitalist parties. We should take no side in this war. We have some serious issues in California and the nation and neither party will resolve them.
This is reflected in the general disgust Americans have with politics and the two political parties that have dominated US political life for over a century or more. In national elections close to 100 million people never bother to vote. Only one in four eligible voters voted for Trump for example. All is not well on the home front and this is reflected in various polls.
According to a December 2024 Gallup survey, “62 percent of Americans said that the federal government should ensure that all Americans have health coverage,
Another survey in 2020 found that nearly four times as many voters support increasing public transportation funding as support reducing it. A similar survey in 2023 found that 70 percent of respondents agree that “providing people with more transportation options is better, “ for our health, safety, and economy than building more highways.”
A Half of all renters spent 30% or more of their income on rent in 2023 while 56% of Black or African American renters did so. US Census Bureau.
82% of Americans want the government to make housing more affordable PEW research and Two-thirds of Americans prioritize developing alternative energy sources, like wind and solar and About three-quarters of Americans support a U.S. role in global efforts to address climate change
These are just a few issues that are important to US workers and the middle class that any politician or party could tap in to that would galvanize the population and help to transform the balance of class forces in the US. The failure to do this is a major reason for the rise of Trump.
Organized Labor’s Potential Power in California
In addition to electoral activity, and in conjunction with it if working people had a party of our own, California has two million workers affiliated to the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO and the LA Labor Federation alone has 800,000 workers affiliated to it; nothing moves in California if these workers decide to stop working. It is the power of the organized and the unorganized working class that we must look if we want to shift the balance of power in California and the US in our favor and it is this power that can defend democracy and stop the threat of fascism. Those that think the Democratic party can defend us from fascism are terribly wrong and have not learned from history.
It’s clear through this experience that California could be a different place if the political power the Democratic Party has in the state was used to confront the issues facing millions of people and changing life for the better. Millions of people want change but they can’t get it no matter which party is in power because, as Nancy Pelosi once said when she answered a question about socialism from a young Naïve DSA member, the Democrats are “Capitalists”. Both Democrats and Republicans are enemies of working class people.
Workers’ shouldn’t vote to give either one of these parties increased power over our lives and instead rely on our own strength by participating in any way our personal resources allow in the building of a united, working class direct action movement and an independent political party based on the working class, our organizations and communities.
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