California’s Applicant Review Panel meets today to finalize the 120 Citizens Redistricting Commission applicants whom the ARP will invite for interviews. On Monday, ARP identified the 40 “other” (not registered with the Republican party or with the Democratic party) applicants invited for interviews. On Tuesday the ARP identified the 40 Republicans it will interview. The ARP also tentatively approved 17 Democratic applicants who have the unanimous recommendation of all three ARP members. Today the ARP will select the final 23 Democrats it will invite for interviews.
Among the 97 interviewees selected through Tuesday:
- 45 are male (46 percent) and 52 are female (54 percent).
- 13 are Asian American (13 percent), 23 are Latino (24 percent), 6 are Native American (6 percent), 9 are African American (9 percent) 1 is Pacific Islander (1 percent) and 6 are “Other” (6 percent).
For comparison, according to a 2008 surname analysis by the California Statewide Database, 49 percent of registered voters in California are male, 51 percent are female, 20 percent are Latino and 8 percent are Asian American. There are no surname lists for African Americans, but according to the Census Bureau’s 2006-2008 American Community Survey (ACS) data African Americans constitute 6 percent of the state’s total population, and in the 2000 Census African Americans constituted 6 percent of California’s voting age population. In 2000, Native Americans constituted 1 percent of the state’s voting age population and now (according to the ACS data) constitute just under 1 percent of the state’s total population.
In summary, looking at gender and ethnicity, the group selected so far for interviews meets or exceeds the diversity of the state’s registered voters in terms of women, Latinos, Native Americans, and African Americans. And 23 more Democrats remain to be added to the interview group.
More detailed analysis to follow, including analysis of the geographic diversity of the selected interviewees.
Until then, follow the ARP’s work on its video feed or through the Rose Institute’s Twitter updates. The Rose Institute is providing real-time updates to the list of “forwarded to interview” and “dropped” candidates in a Google Docs online spreadsheet. You must log into either a Google account or a GMail account (both are free) to access that link.
UPDATE: The ARP has finished selecting the interview group. The final gender and ethnicity data (drawn from the Auditor’s database): 47% female, 53% male; 37% White; 27% Latino, 13% Asian-American, 12% African American, 5% Native American, 1% Pacific Islander, 6% Other.
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