Los Angeles herald., 1891-01-26
A GERRYMANDER.
REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS TRYING
TO STEAL THE STATE.
The New Bill introduced in the Senate
for the Congressional Apportion-
mant. n.a--

the gist of bill introduced in the as
sembly by Judge Dibble, of San Fran
cisco, providing for the congressional
apportionment of the state. 1t was a
very fair measure-too fair to suit the
Dan Burns, Crimmins, Dick Chute,
stripe of statesmen. Therefore a new
bill has been introduced in the senate.
Here is what the Alta says of it:
The Republican senators have COM.
cluded their draft of the congressional
apportionment bill, and today Senator
Voorhees, presented it. The bill is the
same az outlined in this correspondence
two weeks ago, and is one OF the most
disgraceful pieces OF gerrymandering
which partisan effort could make, The
senate bill is drawn without regard to
any interest except partisan vantage,
and the districts are co arranged that
six OF them are surely Republican, with
only q fighting chance in the remaining
one. This measure goes far beyond
that introduced by Dibble in the house
in reckless. partisanship. The seven
districts as proposed in the bill are as
follows:.
First district-Del Norte, siskiyou,
Modoc,. Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta,
Lassen, To hama, Plumas, Mendocino,
Colusa, Sierra, Lake, Sonoma and Napa.
Second district-Butte, Sutter, Yuba,
Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador,
Calaveras, Mono, Alpine, Tuolomne,
Mariposa, San Joaquin and Sacramento.
Third district-Yolo. Solano, Marin,
Contra Costa and Alameda.
Fourth and fifth districts-San Fran
A. H. kl.<,
same as in Dibble's bill.
Sixth district-Santa Cruz, Monterey,
San, Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ven
tura and Los Angeles.
Seventh district-Stanislaus Merced,
San Benito, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Kern,
San Bernardino. Orange and San Diego.
trict is marvellous specimen of gerry
southern counties in one district, to
which contiguity and population entitle
them, Los Angeles is segregated, and
San Bernardino, San Diego and Orange
are Joined to the counties in the San
Joaquin valley. The law requires that
counties in congressional district must
adioin each other This is accomplished
so far as the letter of the law is con-
cerned, but residents of the San Joaquin
valley desiring to visit the other section
OF their district have to pass by round
about way through Los Angeles county
to reach San Bernardino and San Diego.
The last mentioned counties have
nothing in common with Kern,
Tulare and Fresno, but the
Republicans desire their large majority
to defeat the Democratic vote in the pOr-
ton of the district north of Tebachapi.
The two sections are widely divided by
the Mojave desert, but the county bound
aries of Kern and San Bernardino hap
pen to meet in the desert. San Benito,
in the same district, is detached from
Monterey. and forms another section,
! separated by an untraveled mountain
| range from the rest Of the district. As
a sop to the mining men so-called min
ing district Is formed, but the mining
| counties of Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen,
Trinity and Plumas are detached and
placed in the First district. and the agri-
cultural counties of Suffer and San
Joaquin are thrown in, and Sacramento
is annexed to make the Second district
surely Republican. Sonoma and Napa
form a wedge between Solano, Yolo and
Marin, and are thrown into the First
district along with Humboldt, to over
balance the Democratic vote Of Mendo>.
cino and Colusa.
One OF the most curiously formed dis
tricts is the third. Here the counties
composing it lie on three sides of the
bay. Alameda and Contra Costa lie to
the east of San Francisco and San Pablo
bay and south OF Suisun bay. Marin.
lies, to the west OF San Pablo bay. and
Solano and Yolo, adjoining it to the
north, lie to the north of Suisun bay.
The three fragments of the district have
no communication by land, and can only
be reached by a roundabout way through
other counties. Technically they are
adjacent, as the boundary lines Of the
counties of Marin and Contra Costa meet
Theoretically in the waters of San Pablo
bay, and the boundary of Solano and
Contra Costa have a common line rum
ming through the waters OF Suisun bay.
The fourth and fifth districts are prac-
tically the same as in Dibble's bill. The
measure will be fought bitterly, and i'm
less the Republicans bury their differ
'ences there may be a merry disagree
ment among the factions of the dom
inant party over the provisions of the
bill.
vvHvvvy--~vrxy