How did California’s gerrymander work out? Better than Texas’

To win control of the U.S. House, Democrats needed to secure at least 218 seats. By Wednesday night, the party won at least 240 — picking up more than two dozen additional seats, and flipping the Senate too.

A year ago Democrats were far less confident they could pull off the blue wave. Back then, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — at the urging of the Trump administration — carried a gerrymander to create five more Republican districts in his state. It threatened to stack the deck against Democratic gains.

Gov. Gavin Newsom counter-punched with his own bid to draw five more seats for California Democrats, Proposition 50. 

In the end, however, it wasn’t necessary — and some Prop. 50 critics say it did a disservice for democracy in general.

As CalMatters’ Maya C. Miller and Nadia Lathan explain, at least five of California’s nine-member Republican delegation suffered losses. It’s not clear yet whether California Democrats could have gained those seats anyway without the gerrymandering, but the party would have had enough to flip the House regardless.

Meanwhile, the partisan redistricting didn’t work out so well for Texas: GOP lawmakers drew five Republican-leaning seats and lost all but one of them.

Prop. 50 proponents say the measure was a unifying force for California Democrats and voters who wanted to mobilize against President Donald Trump. But in passing the measure, some critics say, California paid a steep price. It temporarily dismantled its independent redistricting commission, which is considered the “gold standard” for drawing voting maps. 

The move set a “very, very dangerous” precedent that prioritized party loyalty over legal norms, said Mike Madrid, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and an anti-Trump Republican who opposed Prop. 50.

• Madrid: “What they were literally saying is, ‘Let’s undo democracy to protect democracy.’ There’s something very Orwellian about it.”

Read more.

More election fallout: The likely failure of Prop. 40 means Californians won’t impose a new tax on billionaires. The passage of Prop. 42, meanwhile, puts up a new obstacle to any future wealth tax. Read more. 

During his victory speech in West Sacramento Tuesday, Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra told the audience, “You have now entered the Becerra era.” But what would a Becerra era look like given that the Democrat has remained relatively mum on his policy stances?

As CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang explains, there are some hints we can glean from that illuminate his position on taxes, immigration and other concerns. Though he opposed the billionaire tax, for example, he’s not against all new taxes. He supports the idea of taxing corporations whose workers are paid so little they qualify for public benefits, or potentially ending tax credits to those companies.

Becerra also seeks to reverse restrictions to Medi-Cal that forced tens of thousands of immigrants who are in California illegally off the program. Newsom last year began rolling back some immigrant health coverage amid a budget deficit and unexpectedly high healthcare costs.

But in an interview with KQED published Monday, Becerra said that “anyone who works hard in California should have access to the healthcare they need for themselves and for their family … and that includes undocumented (immigrants).”

Read more.

You have another year to buy a gas-powered water heater if you live in the Bay Area. That’s the main takeaway from regulators’ decision to delay their plan to curb pollution by phasing out those appliances, writes CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde.

On Wednesday the Bay Area Air District voted to delay until January 2028 a rule requiring most property owners to replace gas water heaters with models that emit no nitrogen oxides, typically electric heat pumps. Regulators also added exemptions to the rule, including low-income owners and owners whose mortgage and property tax payments total to at least 28% of their income.

Though adopting the rule would reduce health risks, such as asthma, and save millions of dollars in healthcare costs, regulators cited the high cost of complying as part of the reason for amending it.

• John Gioia, Bay Area air regulator and Contra Costa County supervisor: “We need to do this in a way that respects that lower-income residents may not be able to afford it. We need to figure out how to help them.”

Read more.

Though Shasta County voters in June ousted Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis in his bid to secure another term, the longtime election denier still had to oversee Tuesday’s election before he leaves office in January. It didn’t go very smoothly: Reports of overflowing ballot boxes, staffing shortages, computer hiccups and other troubles resulted in the county reporting initial results more than two hours later than the rest of the state. Read more from CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow.

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: The election set the state for yet another confrontation between pro- and anti-tax advocates, and the rejection of Prop. 40, the most notable tax measure, handed the anti-tax faction a win.

California Voices editor Yousef Baig: In the end, Prop. 40 opponents’ empirically baseless fears of billionaire migration and lost tax revenue were more persuasive than the realities of an unequal economy and the chance for voters to send a message.

Silicon Valley’s very bad night // The Atlantic (gift link)

Should state workers expect change under Xavier Becerra? Here’s what to know // The Sacramento Bee (gift link)

CA’s plastic law will cut far less single-use plastic than expected // Los Angeles Times (paywall)

The Bay Area has decided public transit is worth saving. Now comes the hard part // The San Francisco Standard (paywall)

Your LA ballot might’ve traveled by air. How sheriff’s helicopters help on election night // LAist (free)

Stuck in shelters for months, some migrant children abandon hopes of staying in US // KFF Health News (free)

Cal State professors sue Trump over grant cancellations led by Ted Cruz // EdSource (free)