Commentary: Prop. 50 — a naked power grab by Gavin Newsom

California stands at a crossroads with Proposition 50, a measure that threatens to unravel the progress we’ve made toward unbiased, transparent redistricting. Californians strongly rejected partisan gerrymandering by establishing the Citizens Redistricting Commission, taking map-drawing power from self-serving Sacramento politicians, and putting it in the hands of an impartial group dedicated to fairness, not politics. The Commission has been far from perfect, but it beats the Newsom-led alternative.

Prop. 50 would drag us back to the dark days of backroom deals, where political elites carved up districts to entrench their power. This isn’t reform — it’s regression, and it’s driven by one man’s ambition: Governor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom and his allies are flooding the airwaves with political ads so shockingly dishonest, they set a new low in California politics — and that’s saying something. These ads, among the most misleading I’ve ever seen, peddle a narrative so far removed from truth it is laughable. The actual truth is that Prop. 50 is a brazen, self-serving anti-reform that flaunts every principle of good governance.