By Maxwell Adler, Bloomberg
California’s Marin and Modoc counties lie more than 200 miles apart — and several worlds away.
Modoc, tucked into the state’s remote northeast corner, lacks a single traffic light. Many of its 8,500 residents once lost internet service after squirrels chewed through a fiber-optic cable. Ranchers fear wolf attacks on cattle.
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Tech-industry wealth, meanwhile, has transformed Marin from a bohemian refuge outside San Francisco into one of California’s richest communities. Traffic regularly jams the freeway into the city, and residents fight over efforts to build more homes.
The two counties represent utterly different Californias. But if Governor Gavin Newsom has his way, they’ll soon share a member of Congress.
Newsom and his fellow Democrats want to redraw California’s congressional district maps – and change the balance of power in Washington, DC. They’ve asked voters to approve a ballot measure in November that would temporarily take control of the maps away from an independent commission and give it to the state legislature, dominated by Democrats. Proposed maps already released would combine sparsely populated Republican communities like Modoc with deep-blue cities and suburbs, such as Marin. Democrats could win as many as five additional seats.
It’s a direct response to redistricting in Texas, where President Donald Trump pushed officials to redraw the state’s maps in favor of Republicans. That playbook is being rapidly embraced by other states both red and blue. North Carolina GOP legislators on Monday announced plans to vote on new congressional maps, and Maryland, Missouri and Florida have discussed similar moves. Newsom casts the California measure – Proposition 50 – as nothing less than a fight to save American democracy, by giving his party a chance to retake Congress in next year’s midterm elections and stand up to Trump.
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Modoc voters, however, see it as a way to silence them. In far-northern California, the ballot measure has added to long-simmering resentment of distant Sacramento and the state’s wealthier cities. Some residents have even revived talk of seceding from California and forming their own state, dubbed Jefferson — an idea that dates back decades.
“Prop 50 disenfranchises the rural voices of northeastern California,” said Ned Coe, chair of the Modoc County Board of Supervisors. “Allowing elected officials in Sacramento to draw maps to their advantage for a short-term gain is not good governance, regardless of what color shirt you wear.”
Many Marin residents would agree, at least in theory. A strong majority of California voters created the state’s current system for drawing maps, passing a pair of ballot measures in 2008 and 2010 that handed the job to an independent, bipartisan commission. They’re loath to ditch that system, even temporarily, since Prop 50 would give redistricting power back to the commission after the 2030 census. But alarmed by Trump, some see little choice.
“What I really support is a fair, nonpartisan system of determining districts,” said Teresa McGlashan, 62, from Mill Valley. “But I agree with Governor Newsom that we need to have a response to what Texas is doing.”
So big are the stakes that Democrats and Republicans nationwide are pouring money into the fight. The Prop 50 campaign has raked in more than $134 million, according to the Secretary of State’s office, while the opposition has raised $78 million. Billionaire investor and former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer last week pledged $12 million to support the measure.
While many donors focus on the debate’s national implications, Coe and other Modoc residents worry about effects closer to home.
Coe, a rancher, lives a few miles from the 111-year-old county courthouse in Alturas, where every seat in the court chamber has a rack for cowboy hats. Buying milk can turn into an hour-long activity for the easily recognizable Coe, with his white handlebar mustache, as constituents stop him in the grocery aisles to talk about local issues. If the maps proposed by California Democrats are approved, Modoc could soon be represented by Congressman Jared Huffman, who lives in the Marin County city of San Rafael — a six-hour drive in good traffic.
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Coe, 68, notes the two counties have some things in common. Both struggle to keep roads paved and provide health care in rural areas. Residents in each root for the San Francisco 49ers. When dealing with government officials, however, distance can make a difference.
“The farther away you get from home as an elected official, the less that you see the impact of your actions,” Coe said.
The Modoc County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in September opposing Prop 50 for its “detrimental impact on rural representation and community integrity.”
The county is currently represented by Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa, who risks losing his seat if the redistricting plan is approved. “No state should be doing mid-decade redistricting,” he said, during a tour of the rice fields that have been in his family since 1931. A Trump ally, LaMalfa is a proud Christian who doesn’t shy away from evangelizing and whose wife home-schooled their kids. He says he’s one of only a handful of congresspeople who can operate an 18-wheeler.
LaMalfa worries about the future of American farming and blames onerous regulations and trade policies for some of its woes. He’s critical of California’s environmental policies for driving up costs, as well as the state’s response to the devastating 2020 North Complex Fire that came close to his family’s ranch.
“How much of that crap can we take from Sacramento?” LaMalfa asked.
He says Prop 50 could become the catalyst for a long-sought local dream — a new state of Jefferson, forged from counties in northern California and southern Oregon. Backers say the idea is fueled by political, economic, and cultural alienation that the ballot measure will only amplify. Indeed, the roads near LaMalfa’s ranch already sport both “No on 50” and “State of Jefferson” lawn signs.
“We barely have a voice as it is, and Prop 50 would completely take that away from us,” said Carol Madison, executive director at a private social services non-profit in Modoc called TEACH Inc. “I think the State of Jefferson is a great idea.”
The daunting logistics of creating a new state make it unlikely, said Dan Schnur, former chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. An oft-discussed alternative — seceding from California and joining a conservative “Greater Idaho” — seems equally doubtful. But politicians ignore the frustration behind those ideas at their peril, he said.
“It’s indicative of how voters in that region are feeling alienated from the state government,” Schnur said.
Make America Great Again banners give way to LGBTQ flags and anti-Elon Musk bumper stickers in Marin County, where opposition to Prop 50 is much harder to find. The county Board of Supervisors passed a resolution supporting the measure. “A couple of seats in Congress really change the dynamics, particularly when it comes to healthcare,” said Supervisor Mary Sackett.
Mill Valley Councilmember Urban Carmel said that while many residents initially opposed Prop 50, considering it out-of-step with local values, they now see it as necessary to counter Trump’s consolidation of power. “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he said.
But in a warning to Newsom, not all Marin residents are convinced. Even though Kamala Harris carried 80% of the vote during the 2024 presidential election in this proudly blue community — a land of electric cars and curbside composting — many don’t want to tamper with California’s nonpartisan redistricting system.
“I think Prop 50 is short-sighted, because having an independent commission is probably a better approach in the long-term,” said Libby Wood, 69, owner of Senior Settlers, a downsizing and relocation management company in San Rafael. “I fear that the move away from independent redistricting might be permanent.”
Research firm co/efficient polled nearly 1,000 likely voters between Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 and found 54% said they support the measure, while 36% opposed it and 10% said they were undecided.
“Redistricting might be a pox on all our houses, but then again, we don’t have a choice,” said Jason Overman, co-founder of Progress Public Affairs, a Bay Area political consultancy firm. “Prop 50 could be the difference between having an election in 2028 or not.”
–With assistance from Eliyahu Kamisher, Denise Lu, Elena Mejía and Anna Edgerton.
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