California State Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) was vindicated Thursday when the state agreed that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s special election to approve a gerrymandered congressional map would cost over $200 million.
As Breitbart News reported last month, DeMaio had crunched the numbers and estimated the cost to be $250 million — simply to give Democrats an even more lopsided district map than they already have in the state.
A “fact check” from the Sacramento Bee cited the Secretary of State’s office in arriving at a figure of over $200 million:
A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office estimates the bill for the statewide election would still be north of $200 million, more than it cost to hold the Newsom recall election in 2021, when there were no other elections taking place. Most of the costs associated with an election are related to printing ballots and envelopes.
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The discussion is mostly hypothetical until and unless the California Legislature actually calls a special election, which they must do by August 22. Newsom is clear the election would only take place if Texas lawmakers are able to pass their gerrymandered maps, which they want to redraw to nab more Republican seats in Congress, at President Donald Trump’s behest.
Elections officials are already preparing just in case, and the Secretary of State has told them the probability of a special November election is “highly likely.”
The Bee added that Newsom had dismissed concerns about the cost, saying that the value of preserving democracy, which he claims gerrymandering would do, is actually “priceless.”
California currently has a nominally independent redistricting commission, which favors Democrats anyway — largely because, as left-leaning ProPublica first reported in 2011, they have learned to fool the system.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
