BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1752
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Date of Hearing: May 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 1752 (Fong) - As Introduced: February 14, 2014
SUBJECT : Redistricting: incumbent designation.
SUMMARY : Makes the portion of a new district that is
represented by an elected official a more important factor than
district number when determining which candidate is considered
the "incumbent" after redistricting in an election for Congress,
Legislature, or Board of Equalization (BOE). Specifically, this
bill :
1)Provides in the first election for Representative in Congress,
State Senator, Assemblymember, or Member of the BOE following
the adjustment of boundaries of districts, if more than one
sitting member of a governmental body is running for election
in a new district, the candidate who is considered the
"incumbent" in the new district is the candidate whose
district has the largest portion of territory in the new
district, instead of the candidate who is running in a
district bearing the same number as the district represented
by the candidate, if any.
2)Makes conforming changes to reflect that the Citizens
Redistricting Commission (CRC), rather than the Legislature,
is responsible for adjusting the boundaries of Congressional,
Legislative, and BOE districts following the federal decennial
census.
3)Makes corresponding and technical changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides in the first election for Representative in Congress,
State Senator, Assemblymember, and Member of the BOE following
the adjustment of boundaries of districts, the candidate who
is considered the incumbent in the race shall be based on the
following:
a) If a candidate is running for the same office which he
or she holds, and is running for reelection in a district
that has the identical boundaries and number as the
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district from which he or she was last elected, that person
is deemed to be the incumbent;
b) If there is no candidate for which (a) applies, but
there is a candidate running for the same office which he
or she holds, and is running for reelection in a district
that has the identical boundaries as the district from
which he or she was last elected, but which has a different
number, that person is deemed to be the incumbent;
c) If there is no candidate for which (a) or (b) applies,
but there is a candidate running for the same office which
he or she holds, and who is running for reelection in a
district that has the identical number as the district from
which he or she was last elected, that person is deemed to
be the incumbent; provided, however, that a candidate for
Assembly is considered the incumbent in this case only if
the district bearing the same number is located in the same
county as the district which previously bore that number;
d) If there is no candidate for which (a), (b), or (c)
applies, but there is a candidate running for the same
office that he or she then holds, and who is running for
reelection in a district that contains some portion of the
territory previously contained within the district from
which he or she was last elected, that person is deemed to
be the incumbent; provided, however, that in a new district
that contains portions of the territory of more than one
former district, the incumbent is the candidate whose
former district includes the largest portion of the
territory of the new district; and,
e) If there is no candidate for which (a), (b), (c), or (d)
applies, any candidate for the same office that he or she
then holds and who fulfills the residential requirements of
law for candidacy within the district is considered the
incumbent.
2)Establishes the CRC, and gives it the responsibility for
establishing the district lines for State Senate, Assembly,
Congress, and the BOE.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
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1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
Every ten years, following the completion of the
Census, the boundary lines of Legislative,
Congressional, and Board of Equalization districts are
required to be adjusted so that all the districts for
the same office have approximately equal populations.
When district boundaries are adjusted, it is possible
that more than one sitting member of a house of the
Legislature, of Congress, or of the Board of
Equalization, may end up in the same district. In
recognition of the potential for such a situation,
state law contains a method for determining which
candidate is considered the incumbent when two or more
sitting members are running against each other
following the adjustment of boundary lines. Under
that method, if both sitting members represent a
portion of the new district in which they are running,
the member who is running for the district with the
same district number is considered the incumbent, and
is able to use the ballot designation of "Incumbent."
The purpose of allowing a candidate to use the ballot
designation "Incumbent" is to provide information to
voters about the individual who has been representing
them. In light of that fact, state law should give
priority to the person who represents the largest
portion of the new district, rather than the person
who is running in the same district number.
AB 1752 ensures that a candidate who represents the
largest portion of a new district following
redistricting will be considered the incumbent in that
district. Additionally, AB 1752 updates California
law to reflect the fact that redistricting of
Legislative, Congressional, and Board of Equalization
districts is now carried out by the Citizens
Redistricting Commission.
2)Incumbency After Redistricting : In 1961, the Legislature
passed and the Governor signed AB 2444 (Crown), Chapter 1238,
Statutes of 1961, which established a procedure for
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determining which candidate for reelection would be considered
the incumbent in a congressional, Assembly, Senate, or BOE
district at the first election after redistricting. Under
that procedure, an elected official who was running in a
district that had the same number as the district that he or
she held had priority over another official running in the
same seat.
When the Legislature was responsible for drawing new district
lines, it typically numbered districts in a manner that was
designed to promote continuity in district numbers, so the
practical effect was that the person who represented a larger
portion of the new district typically was considered the
incumbent. But when the CRC numbered districts, it did so in
a manner that followed the geographic placement of the
districts much more strictly. For example, in the 2001
Assembly redistricting plan that was prepared and adopted by
the Legislature, 76 of the 80 new Assembly Districts were
assigned numbers that corresponded to the number of the
previous Assembly District that made up the largest portion of
the new district. By contrast, in the 2011 Assembly
redistricting plan that was prepared and adopted by the CRC,
just 11 of the 80 new Assembly Districts were assigned numbers
that corresponded to the number of the previous Assembly
District that made up the largest portion of the new district.
In fact, in the CRC's redistricting plan for the state
Assembly, 54 of the 80 new Assembly Districts contained no
territory in common with the district of the same number from
the 2001 district lines.
3)Effect on 2011 Elections : This bill would not have affected
the determination of incumbency in any races following the
2011 redistricting process, as there was only one district in
which two sitting members of the same body ran against each
other, and neither of those members was running in a district
that had the same number as the district that the member
represented at the time. Congressman Brad Sherman (who
represented the 27th Congressional District) and Congressman
Howard Berman (who represented the 28th Congressional
District) both ran for reelection in 2012 in the 30th
Congressional District following the 2011 redistricting.
Since neither Congressman represented a district with the same
number as the district in which they were running, Congressman
Sherman was considered the incumbent in the 30th Congressional
District because he represented a larger portion of the
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district than Congressman Berman. In elections held after
future redistricting processes, however, this bill may have a
significant impact.
4)Suggested Amendment : Under existing law and the provisions of
this bill, if an incumbency determination is based on an
assessment of which candidate represents a larger portion of a
district, that determination is made based on the amount of
territory that each candidate represents in the new district.
To better realize the author's goals, the author and the
committee may wish to consider amending this bill to provide
that such determinations will be made based on the population
that each candidate represents in the new district, instead of
the territory that each candidate represents.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094