Democratic State Senate Candidate Endorses Proposition 11

In a recent announcement, California State Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson became one of the most prominent Democrats to announce her support for Proposition 11, according to the Santa Barbara Independent. Hannah-Beth Jackson is running in one of the few competitive state legislative seats in California, and faces a tough challenge from her Republican opponent Tony Strickland, who has also endorsed Prop 11. 

Given Jackson’s unhappy history both with the most recent redistricting effort — and her notorious poor relations with Perata — her endorsement should come as little surprise. “Politicians should not be drawing their own districts,” Jackson said in a press release. “It is an obvious and inherent conflict of interest.”

The article also provides some interesting insight into how the current redistricting process results in Machiavellian district drawing. 

Jackson was not so fortunate. Because no Santa Barbara incumbent was technically occupying the senate seat — with O’Connell moving on and Jackson not having quite moved in — the legislative leadership felt free to effectively erase Santa Barbara’s senate seat. Under the new scheme, Santa Barbara was moved into the 19th District, then an intensely conservative district epicentered in Thousand Oaks and represented by Republican Tom McClintock, the flamboyantly theatrical arch-conservative now term-limited out of office and running for Congress in Northern California.

Jackson’s misfortune stemmed, in part, out of her inability to get along with the “good old boys” who comprised the legislative leadership of her own party, like now-retired war horse John Burton or his successor Don Perata. The leadership was much more focused on creating a safe seat for Central Valley Democrat Dennis Cardoza, and by achieving that end, there was not enough give left in the map-making process to protect Jackson or fellow Democrat Fred Keeley, from Santa Cruz.