San Leandro To Join Oakland in New Voting Districts

San Leandro will likely no longer be voting with its neighbors to the south in state or federal elections.  

The 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission released its final preliminary maps on Friday for Congress, state Senate, state Assembly and the state Board of Equalization. (Click here to view the maps.)

All but one of the commissioners, Republican Michael Ward, a chiropractor from Anaheim, voted in favor of the draft maps.

The commission will accept public input over the next two weeks before taking a final vote on the maps on Aug. 15. Most will go into effect for the 2012 election. 

Here’s where San Leandro lies on the maps: 

U.S. House of Representatives 

San Leandro would join Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda and Albany in the district currently represented by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland). It leaves the district currently represented by Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont). 

In a previous version of the redistricting map, all but the northern end of San Leandro would have stayed in Stark’s district.

Under the final proposed map, Stark's district would include Ashland, San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, Hayward, Union City, Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, San Ramon and part of Fremont, where Stark lives.

Lee and Stark are up for re-election in 2012. 

State Senate 

The majority of San Leandro will join a district stretching nearly to the Carquinez Bridge in the new state Senate map. The district includes Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, Richmond, Rodeo and El Sobrante. 

Much of that area is currently represented by Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), who is up for re-election in 2012. 

Under the new map, state Sen. Ellen Corbett’s current district — District 10 — will no longer include her hometown of San Leandro, except for a small chunk. The area to remain in the 10th District stretches from Bayfair Center northwest to 143rd Avenue, then jogs back to 148th Avenue at Bancroft Avenue.  

The Upper Bal neighborhood is included with the majority of San Leandro in the new map. The Lower Bal neighborhood is not.   

However, Corbett will continue to represent her current district, which also includes San Lorenzo, Hayward, Union City, Fremont, Newark, Milpitas and parts of Castro Valley and San Jose.

Corbett was first elected to the State Senate in 2006. She will be termed out in 2014.

In an email sent to Patch through her spokesperson, Corbett encouraged constituents with concerns about the new boundaries to communicate with the redistricting commission before it takes final action on Aug. 15. 

"Whatever the final outcome of the new district lines, I look forward to serving my constituents in the 10th Senate District until the end of my term in 2014,” Corbett said.

State Assembly

San Leandro would join Alameda and most of Oakland in the new state Assembly district, losing ties to unincorporated San Leandro and other neighbors to the south and east.

Assemblyman Sandre Swanson (D-Alameda) currently represents the district San Leandro will join, but he will be termed out in 2012. 

Currently, San Leandro is represented by Assemblymember Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward) in the 18th Assembly District, an area that includes San Lorenzo, Ashland, Cherryland, Hayward, Dublin and portions of Castro Valley, Oakland, Pleasanton and Sunol.

What Does It All Mean?

Mayor Stephen Cassidy said the new maps "severed” the city from its “historic connection to communities with common interests and similar challenges.” 

He noted San Leandro has political and service ties to its southern and eastern neighbors. 

“We fall in the same community college and health care districts, are served by the same newspaper and in many cases the same fire department," Cassidy said. 

Other local politicians and analysts have expressed concern that San Leandro would be dwarfed by Oakland in terms of its influence and needs.

Statewide, the maps could lead to a rearrangement of politics in Sacramento.

It appears that Democrats could easily gain a two-thirds majority in the Senate — the amount required under California law to pass new taxes — though probably not in the Assembly, analysts told the Contra Costa Times. 

About the Citizen’s Redistricting Commission 

Letting citizens redraw the political lines in California represents a large-scale national effort to eliminate gerrymandering.

The commission was spawned by a 2008 voter-approved ballot measure that stripped state legislators of the power to draw their own district boundaries. The commission's tasks were expanded to include the drawing of congressional districts last November.

Redistricting occurs every 10 years using updated population data from the most recent U.S. Census. 

The commission says its goal is to create contiguous districts of relatively equal population that minimize city and county divisions, and group towns with similar "communities of interest."