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Two minutes after the polls closed in California, CNN called the Prop 50 race in the starting gate, predicting that voters had approved the change in the state's Congressional Districts.
At 8:15pm with nearly 4,000 of the state's 18,399 precincts counted, about 21%, the Secretary of State issued its first report, confirming the CNN prediction: 3.2 million votes in favor of redrawing congressional districts, with 1.6 million voting against the changes.
By 9:50pm, the ratio of YES-to-NO had stabilized: 4.56 million for Prop 50, and 2.49 million against. With 64% of the state's ballots counted, this more than 2-million-vote margin appeared by all accounts to be insurmountable.
In Santa Clara County, voters approved of the redrawing of congressional districts by a 72%-to-28% margin.
If approved, the measure will suspend California’s current congressional maps, which were drawn by an independent citizens commission, and replace them through 2030 with districts drawn by Democratic insiders.
The plan will have little impact on South Bay congressional districts.
The big changes will occur in Marin and Sonoma and northern counties, where the current 1st District, represented by Republican Doug LaMalfa, will be cut in half, with its coastal counties, including Sonoma and Marin, included in a revised 2nd District, represented by Democrat Jared Huffman. The plan also will change boundaries for LaMalfa’s 1st District and the 4th District, represented by Democrat Mike Thompson, creating two Democrat-majority districts.
Total spending on this campaign likely totaled more than $100,000.
The latest campaign financing reports for the Proposition 50 campaign showed that $50.4 million raised to support the ballot measure and $44.3 million raised in opposition to the congressional redistricting plan. Most of the money raised both for and against today’s ballot measure came from fewer than 20 total contributors.
The top 10 contributors to Yes on 50, Governor Newsom’s Ballot Measure Committee totaled 95% of the campaign’s money.
Topping the list were two national political action committees, the House Majority Political Action Committee for Prop 50, $16.4 million, and the Fund for Policy Reform, $10 million.
Funds remaining from the governor’s 2022 campaign contributed $2.6 million, and renowned Welsh billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz pitched in $2.5 million. Prominent billionaire philanthropist and Cargill heiress Gwendolyn Sontheim contributed $2 million.
Nearly 75% of the money raised to defeat the redistricting plan was contributed by wealthy atomic physicist Charles Munger Jr., who had donated $32.8 million as of Oct. 23.
