FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2021
Media Contact
SAN JOSÉ, CA -- Today, the
California Citizens Redistricting Commission will vote on a plan that was announced late Friday that would split San José into four congressional districts, making San José the only major city in California to not have at least one Member of Congress representing the majority of its over one million residents. Mayor Sam Liccardo released the following letter:
“Members of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission:
As Mayor of San José, California’s third largest city, I wish to thank each of you for your service to California, and your extraordinary personal commitment to this lengthy and time-consuming process, so essential to the proper functioning of our democracy.
I write because the proposed Congressional maps would divide my city of San José into four parts, and dramatically dilute the vote of our 1 million residents. None of the four San José districts would have a majority of San José residents, so California’s third largest city would become the only major city without a Congressperson primarily representing the city’s collective interests. This undermines the voice of San José’s diverse neighborhoods—three-quarters of us are people of color--relative to more affluent and often disproportionately influential suburbs.
I understand that a key concern of several commissioners is the creation of Latino/-a/-x and Asian-American opportunity districts within parts of my city and surrounding areas (I will leave it to the legal experts to assess whether and how to create a Latino/-a/-x opportunity district—our understanding is that the Commission’s consultant, David Becker, already concluded that there is no protected need under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act due to insufficient polarization in the voting data, because San José’s majority and Latino/-a/-x voters are heavily aligned in past presidential and congressional races). You can still achieve the goal of maintaining separate Latino/-a/-x and Asian-American opportunity districts and create a San José-majority district by consolidating the two remaining districts in the west, south, and southeast of San José. In that manner, you can preserve Latino/-a/-x and Asian-American opportunity districts in our city while still ensuring that San José has a representative in Congress who serves a district with a majority of San José residents.
This call for a member of Congress to primarily represent San José is not merely imperative for my city. Farmworkers in the Salinas Valley and coastal residents of Monterey should also have strong representation, and deserve the full attention of a Congressperson who does not need to drive an hour north to a district office located near the world headquarters of Adobe, Western Digital, or Zoom. Obviously, all of our communities have very unique needs, and each of our communities’ needs require the full attention of our Congressional representatives.
Big cities’ needs inevitably create a uniquely diverse and heavy set of demands on their representatives. San Francisco and Oakland, the other two large cities in the Bay Area—both which are substantially smaller in population than San José---have proposed districts that will ensure their representatives in Congress will overwhelmingly represent their city. San Joseans certainly deserve this much.
Thank you for considering my thoughts on this matter, and those of many other residents in our city.”
The meeting begins at 1 p.m. today, to watch it live, visit
here.
Public can submit written comments here.
To give public comment during the meeting, residents can call (877)853-5247. Enter code: 811 4925 9556, followed by the pound # symbol. Press *9 to raise your hand for public speaking.
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About the City of San José
With more than one million residents, San José comprises the 10th largest city in the United States, and one of its most diverse cities. San José’s transformation into a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley has resulted in the world's greatest concentration of technology talent and development.
