Breaching Redistricting Normality

It was Thomas Jefferson who declared in an Aug. 4, 1801, letter: “Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.” Oh, how we need in Washington, D.C. those “reformers of error.” Instead, we have a government of men and women (I mean you, Attorney General Pam Bondi) which creates fear among most of the governed.

We’ve just endured legislative gerrymandering in our Golden State to answer Texas, whose gubernatorial practice of reshaping its House of Representative districts this year, instead of the time-honored system of doing so after the next U.S. census in 2030, is completed. Our ambitious governor wanted to answer Texas’s Republican governor who twisted the geography of five Longhorn State districts to “fix” them for President Donald Trump’s last two years as the worst Republican president in our nation’s history (I’ll take Calvin Coolidge any day!). That caused the expenditure of millions of California taxpayer funds on a statewide election to present Proposition 50 last month to voters. It passed. Now, Republican Assemblyman David Tangipa from Fresno, plus 18 of his district voters and the California Republican Party have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles’s U.S. District Court seeking to block the new district lines until at least the 2030 census. A similar suit was filed in federal court in Texas by Democrats and a stay of execution was ordered by the court.

We, however, have our own San Francisco political governing problems. Mayor Daniel Lurie’s selection to replace feckless Joel Engardio as District 4 Supervisor was astonishingbecause it exposed a Room 200, City Hall, failure to investigate the history of appointee Beya Alcaraz, a young woman with a less than stunning history in business and none in governance.Moreover, her forced resignation infuriated many Filipino Americans, who’ve never experienced in our City and country a supervisor from their ranks despite decades of contribution to our economy, education and happiness. Whether the mayor can correct (and overcome) such misstep will be known on June 2, 2026, when voters in the Sunset can demonstrate their supervisorial choice in an already scheduled primary election. I’ve endorsed David Lee, a native, who promises to end Recology’s nearly 100-year monopoly of our garbage collection contract in favor of competitive bidding like other California cities and counties. David, a former Recreation and Park commissioner, began his campaign on Nov. 15 at West Sunset Playground, the creation of which he had championed on the Rec. and Park governing board.

City Hall’s ballyhooed “upzoning” of San Francisco neighborhoods (Richmond, Sunset, Marina, etc.) will have undoubtedly occurred at the Board of Supervisors after we went to press, but the mayor and his planning director turned no heads at the November West of Twin Peaks Home Improvement Council meeting held at St. John’s Armenian Church on Laguna Honda Boulevard, because of overflow attendance requiring more space than the Forest Hills Clubhouse, its usual domain, to which it returns in January, 2026. There are now 21 neighborhood clubs in the Council. Monthly meetings are open to the public under the leadership of Denise La Pointe of the Twin Peaks Home Improvement Club as a November attendee it became apparent to me.

Mayor Lurie is understandably attributing his “upzoning” ordinance to state law authored by State Senator Scott Wiener, legislation requiring housing construction throughout a state which has fewer residents this decade than last. Few attendees were persuaded by Mayor Lurie.

Contrary to my expectation, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Christine, is not running for her mother’s House seat; she announced intent to replace Wiener in the California Senate in next year’s election. (Republicans need not apply.) Filing for Nancy’s Pelosi’s Congressional office doesn’t end until next year and may produce a less poisonous candidate than the “upzoning” creator!

The aforementioned California redistricting lawsuit claims the new Prop. 50 maps for the House of Representatives districts are unconstitutional because voters’ race was used as a factor in redrawing districts. The plaintiffs hired U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon’s old San Francisco firm (Dhillon Law Group) as their attorney. Dhillon, a Dartmouth College graduate like your scribe, now is the Assistant Attorney-General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, appointed by President “Bone Spur,” an Epstein file star who will be (or even has been) illuminated with fame and a cultural wallop we’ll include in presidential history books.

Incidentally, a federal district court has enjoined that Texas redistricting, which may be a precedent for the California case if race is proven to have been a redistricting Texas factor, in a decision which has been appealed. The Texas decision has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court which hadn’t acted by press time.

Other states are also breaching redistricting normality, in order to give the governing political party advantages in 2026 House of Representatives elections, including Missouri, NorthCarolina, Utah, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New York, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, where previous maps were only controlling until 2024 due to failure to achieve bipartisan support after 2020’s census. Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Indiana refused to do so despite Republican attempts. (Out of 435 House seats, 35 Republicans and 47 Democrats aren’t seeking reelection.) Meanwhile, our Sacramento legislative “beauties” tried in a Wiener bill unsuccessfully to conceal property tax increases resulting from low-income housing bonds to render such bonds easier to pass by simply telling voters to see the “voter guide for tax rate information.” Fortunately, Gov. Newsom vetoed Wiener’s bill, stating “this bill … will reduce transparency for how the new taxes or bonds will actually be spent to benefit the local community.” Marina Assemblywoman Catherine Stefani tried to outwit taxpayers by allowing tax effects of bond measures, now disclosed in the election mail to voters, to be instead emailed or posted on the state government’s website. It, too, was vetoed by Newsom. Thank you, Gavin.

That calls to mind President Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration speech more than 100 years ago:

“The wisest and soundest method of solving tax problems is through economy …. The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of organized larceny. Under this republic, the rewards of industry belong to those who earn them. The only constitutional tax is the tax which ministers to public necessity.”

“Bone Spur” Trump seems to be following Mayor Lurie in reducing the number of federal government departments. Incidentally, Sean Elsbernd, former S.F. Supervisor for eight years from the west side, is now directing SPUR and formulating its recommendations on eliminating many San Francisco commissions. The briefly extant federal Department of Government Efficiency (aka DOGE) led by Trump’s ex-friend Elon Musk, exposed about 1,500 U.S. departments which should be shuttered. Some illegally still exist like the Legal Services Corporation, established by Congress in 1974 to provide free legal assistance to Americans in civil cases when they couldn’t afford a lawyer. The legislation required that authorization for continued funding would expire in 1980, thus mandating 1980 Congressional legislation on whether to re-authorize it. Like some 1,500 other existing federal commissions, it has not been re-authorized by Congress. These are known in some circles as “zombie commissions.” Two months ago, 166 more were in the “expired” category, sucking taxpayer money.

I conclude with warm best wishes of Happy Chanukah beginning on Dec. 15 (the holiday of lights for eight nights), Merry Christmas on Dec. 25 and a happy new year. I expect to be in Los Angeles on New Year’s Day, attending the Rose Bowl game, but not the Rose Parade in the morning because I am ambulatorily limited. I do, however, wish all readers and their families a happy, healthy 2026.

A couple who reside in District 4 went for an afternoon drive and stopped for gas. As the hubby filled the tank, his wife declared she couldn’t believe that it costs money to fill tires nowadays. “Why in the world do they charge for air?” she asked. Her husband replied: “Inflation.”

May 2026 inflate our happiness and health.

Quentin Kopp is a former San Francisco supervisor, state senator, SF Ethics Commission member, president of the California High Speed Rail Authority governing board and retired Superior Court judge.