Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denounced congressional redistricting efforts taking place throughout the United States, describing them as dishonest in an interview airing on “NCS’s State of the Union” on Sunday.
“There’s this war going on all over the United States. Who can out cheat the other one?” the motion star and Republican former governor, who served from 2003 to 2011, informed NCS’s Jake Tapper. “Texas started it. They did something terribly wrong. And then all of a sudden California says, ‘Well, then we have to do something terribly wrong.’ And then now other states are jumping in.”
Schwarzenegger’s feedback come as GOP state lawmakers press on with efforts to redraw their congressional maps on the behest of President Donald Trump, who needs to make sure the Democrats don’t win management of the House in subsequent 12 months’s midterm elections. States like California and Virginia, the place Democrats would management the redistricting levers, are additionally trying into strikes that might profit them.
Efforts in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina carry the entire variety of new Republican-friendly districts created this 12 months to seven. Indiana and Kansas are additionally trying to doubtlessly redraw their maps to favor the GOP.
While redistricting in states such as Texas — which kicked off the efforts — are handed by the state legislature, California’s strikes have to be accepted by voters. The effort in California, Proposition 50, would permit Democrats to change maps drawn by an impartial fee with new maps that might assist the social gathering flip as many as 5 GOP-held US House seats. A particular election to approve the measure is scheduled for November 4.
Schwarzenegger, who backed the ballot initiatives that created the impartial fee drawing the state’s congressional and state strains, famous that the race to redistrict earlier than the midterms “saddens” him.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has touted Prop 50 as “foundational.” When requested about Schwarzenegger’s opposition to it final week, Newsom mentioned individuals want “to wake up to these new realities” and “spare me the moral high ground.”
Responding to a clip of Newsom’s feedback, Schwarzenegger acknowledged his friendship with California’s present governor, however mentioned Democrats “should outperform Trump” as an alternative of redistricting.
“You know, we are friends, and we get along, and he came to me and told me about this situation, and we have been working on this without attacking each other and all of that,” he mentioned.
“To me, it’s all about competition,” he mentioned, dismissing the concept as a result of other states redistrict, that California ought to observe. “That’s not really the way to go. One party should outperform the other party. It should be performance.”
NCS’s Eric Bradner, Arlette Saenz, Ethan Cohen, Arit John, Fredreka Schouten and Dianne Gallagher contributed to this report.