La Mesa Is Shifted to Democratic Congress District Under Remap Plan

La Mesa would be moved from Rep. Duncan D. Hunter’s solidly Republican congressional district to Rep. Susan Davis’ Democratic-leaning district under proposed district maps released Friday.

State Sen. Joel Anderson, an Alpine Republican who once had an office in La Mesa as an assemblyman, would also lose La Mesa, according to the maps.

The change would align La Mesa with San Diego’s recent shift to a Democratic registration majority. In 2008, the Obama-Biden ticket won 54 percent of the vote in San Diego County compared with the 43.8 percent for McCain-Palin—the same year that registered Democrats edged ahead of Republicans countywide for the first time in 24 years.

Linda Armacost, president of the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club, noted on the club’s website: “Democrats are now the majority party in the city of La Mesa. San Diego County also turned blue in 2008 for the first time in 25 years.”

As of May 31, however, the county Registrar of Voters said Democrats led Republicans in the registration by a slim 332 voters—510,724 to 510,392.

Hunter’s 52nd Congressional District has 145,150 GOP voters and  105,346 Democrats, while Davis’ 53rd Congressional District has 131,220 registered Democrats and 72,835 Republicans.

The changes may have a slight impact on San Diego’s five-member congressional delegation, according to two political consultants.

The first set of political maps—drafted by the 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission—show shifts for the five districts in the San Diego region with one district that could dramatically  affected.

Districts now represented by Reps. Darrell Issa  Hunter, Bob Filner and Davis show slight shifts, but it’s the district of Brian Bilbray that is one of a few with a larger shift and could toss the seat to a Democrat.

Bilbray, a Republican who has served in the 50th District for five years, would see his district moved down the coast—to the city of San Diego and to Poway.

“This is not good for him,” said Democrat political consultant Chris Crotty. “He’s going to have to change his tune, which will not be a problem for him because he’s done it several times.” 

But Republican political consultant John Dadian said that while Bilbray’s proposed boundaries  show a significant change compared with the other four districts—his advantage as an incumbent and longtime elected leader would help him maintain a congressional seat.

Republican Issa’s district would also gain areas in southern Orange County, but lose southern Riverside County. Republican Hunter’s traditionally East County district would, if the maps are approved, become more inland North County-oriented.

Among the Democrats, Davis would lose all her coastal neighborhoods and be placed in Mission Valley and central San Diego. The South Bay district long held by Bob Filner, who is stepping down to run for mayor of San Diego, would have a sliver of the southern coastline, the border and all of Imperial County.

Overall, Dadian thinks the first draft of the maps show the commissioners—which was established after it was passed by voters in 2008 and is a change from lawmakers drafting districts—did their job well.

“They are all pretty compact,” said Republican political consultant Dadian. “It’s used as an intention to keep communities together. Do these pass the smell test? They look like they do. There isn’t any indication of gerrymandering.”

Crotty agreed.

“It does a good job of compacting populations and bringing together communities of interest,” Crotty said. “The maps are fairly reasonable.”

The commission is scheduled to meet until the end of July with a June 20 meeting in San Diego and are required to submit final maps by Aug. 15.

See the video for more. To see the new maps, visit the commission’s website at Wedrawthelines.ca.gov

Bilbray’s office did not respond to a message seeking comment. City News Service contributed to this report.