ABSTRACT
Until 1958, California had long been a Republican bailiwick. Except for Culbert Olson, elected governor in 1938, no Democrat had lived in the governor's mansion since 1898. In 1958 Edmund G. Brown was elected as a Democratic governor, and the Democrats won all state-wide offices except that of Secretary of State. The new Congressional delegation was sixteen Democrats and fourteen Republicans, and the new state Legis lature had solid Democratic majorities.1 Democratic registration had long exceeded Republican in the state,2 but this advantage in registration had meant little in the face of a weak and divided party and successful Re publican gerrymandering.3 However, the successes of the Democratic Party in the 1958 elections did not mean that the Republican Party was dead in California. In face of an overwhelming Democratic registration in the 1960 elections, the Republicans maintained their fourteen seats in the Congressional delegation and carried the state for Nixon in the presidential race.4 It must also be remembered that the thumping suc cess of the Democrats in 1958 was at least partially influenced by for tuitous circumstances, namely, two referendum issues which turned out voters with traditional Democratic loyalties-Catholics and labor-union members.5 Fortune might not be so kind in the future. But the fact re mains that in the decade of the 1950's the lot of the Republican Party in California had not been a happy one. The 1961 Assembly, which domi nated the reapportionment process, was controlled by the Democrats in exactly the same ratio, forty-seven to thirty-three, as that by which the Republicans had controlled this body in 1951. Also in 1951 the Repub licans had twenty-eight members in the Senate against twelve Democrats; now it was thirty Democrats against ten Republicans. Thus, when a
Democratic state Legislature was faced in early 1961 with the reappor tionment of Assembly and Congressional districts, it appeared to be an opportunity to give a long-term Democratic cast to legislative elections in California. The stakes were not small; eighty Assembly districts were to be recast and eight new Congressional seats added. California gained 48.5 per cent in population from 1950 to 1960, from 10,586,223 to 15,717,204, and as a result was entitled to an increase in the House of Representatives from thirty to thirty-eight. This was one of the largest gains of any state in a single decade since the Civil War. 6
L E G A L R E S T R I C T I O N S ON D I S T R I C T I N G
The opportunity which the Democrats had in 1961 to reapportion the Assembly and the Congressional districts had to be realized within the restrictions imposed by the state constitution. These restrictions are partially responsible for the gerrymandered face of California. However, both the Republicans and the Democrats have used the constitutional provisions to facilitate a gerrymander. The constitution, Article IV, Section 27, places the following limitations on the Legislature when it redraws Congressional district lines:
1. Counties in a Congressional district must be contiguous; 2. No county may be divided to make a Congressional district unless it has more than the ratio of population required for one or more Congressional districts; if it does have, then a residue Assembly district may be attached to compact adjoining As sembly districts in another county; and
3. Within a county, no Assembly district may be divided to form a Congressional district, and each Congressional district must be composed of compact, contiguous, whole Assembly districts.
