Michael Tamony
Compiled by RADC Member - Tracy Wise
1. Voting Rights: Re-Districting Process
Background: Ensuring a fair redistricting process is key to our efforts to move the dial in Redlands over the next 10 years. However, the San Bernardino County Redistricting process (https://sbcountyredistricting.com/) is ultimately tied to our County Board of Supervisors (and not an independent group). The process itself is being handled by an advisory redistricting commission that is refusing to hold any hearings in Redlands (for our county district, which is the 3rd District). The Yucaipa meeting on 9/15 was intended to cover Redlands, Loma Linda, Colton, Highland, Grand Terrace, and Mentone. That hearing was in the middle of the morning, when the majority of people are at work and cannot attend.
Call to Action: Email (see below) or use the public comment function (https://sbcountyredistricting.com/public-comments/) to send a message requesting hearings in Redlands, at least one of which is in the evening:
Contact information:
Supervisor Rowe Phone: 909-387-4855 Email: [email protected]
Redistricting Commission Phone: 909-387-3841 [email protected]
Sample template for Supervisor Rowe and Redistricting Commission Chair:
Supervisor Dawn Rowe and the Honorable Keith Davis:
It has been brought to my attention that the City of Redlands has not been included as a host for an Advisory Redistricting Commission Meeting. As a resident of Redlands, with a population of over 71,000, I find this troubling. Yucaipa, a city with a population of 53,000, has a meeting scheduled from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on a Wednesday. Apparently, that meeting is intended to cover Highland (population 56,000), Colton (population 55,000), Loma Linda (population 25,000), and other valley cities. I am respectfully asking you to hold at least two Advisory Redistricting Commission Meetings in Redlands, with one of those meetings occurring in the evening. Thank you for your prompt action to involve all your constituents in this important process.
Sincerely,
2. Legislation
Background: Access to voting has been under attack ever since the Supreme Court helped gut the Voting Rights Act. Senator Schumer is planning to bring a voting rights bill to the floor as early as next week. It modifies what was previously proposed in order to get Senator Joe Manchin (D, WV) to support it. However, it likely will still run into a GOP-led filibuster.*
Call to Action: Contact our two senators, Feinstein and Padilla, and ask that they support this new legislation and, if it runs into a filibuster, insist on a carve out for voting rights legislation so that the Democrat majority can pass this bill. We must do this in order to protect the 2022 midterms.
To email Senator Feinstein: https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
To email Senator Padilla: https://www.padilla.senate.gov/
*For further information: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/14/1036812609/senate-democrats-offer-a-new-voting-bill-but-a-gop-filibuster-likely-blocks-the-
3. California Legal Reform: The Recall Process
Background: What we have just gone through with the recall process for Governor Gavin Newsom has not been an exercise in direct democracy. Instead, it was the result of moneyed interests gaming the system (which has a very low threshold for the number of signatures required for a recall) to waste our money a year before a regular election.
Call to Action: Contact our legislative representatives in the California State Assembly and Senate and ask that they begin to review and reform the recall process ASAP. They need to look into requiring more signatures, toughening reasons for a recall, establishing distributive partisan requirements for signatures, amending the succession so that it adds recalls to the list directing the lieutenant governor to take over should the governor be recalled, and/or increasing filing requirements.*
Assemblymember James C. Ramos, CA Assembly District 40: https://lcmspubcontact.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/ContactPopup.php?district=AD40
Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, CA Senate District 23: https://ochoa-bogh.cssrc.us/my-offices
*For further information:
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/07/4-needed-reforms-of-californias-recall-election-rules/
STICK A PIN IN THIS ITEM
Stick a pin in this: With the restrictive abortion bill in Texas, which will likely be replicated by other states, and a further anticipated future direct review by SCOTUS of Roe v. Wade, California may become a state to which women turn if they need an abortion and cannot get one where they live. What on-the-ground, grassroots efforts can we put into place here in California to support women in those states?
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