Nearly six-in-ten California voters approve of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsomâs gerrymandering efforts, according to an Emerson College poll released Friday morning.
The survey found that 57% of likely voters in California support Proposition 50, the Nov. 4 ballot measure to allow the stateâs Democratic-dominated legislature to redraw the stateâs congressional map to flip up to five House seats from red to blue â while just 37% oppose the Newsom-backed measure. Including undecided voters, the share increases to 60% of voters who back the redistricting measure, and 40% who said they do not support it, according to the poll.
Newsomâs office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundationâs request for comment.
âWith less than two weeks until the California special election for Proposition 50, the measure looks likely to pass, with results again outside the pollâs margin of error,â Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement. âCertain demographic groups that were hesitant to support the measure last month have come around to support Prop. 50, such as black voters, whose support increased from 45% to 71%.â
Regardless of if respondents intend to vote yes or no, 56% said they think the ballot measure is a good idea, while 44% think it is a bad idea, the poll found.
Among Californians who plan to vote âyesâ on redistricting in the Golden State, 89% said it is a good idea, and 11% said it is a bad idea, according to the poll. Meanwhile, among those who plan to vote ânoâ to the ballot measure, 93% responded that it is a bad idea while 7% said it is a good idea, the survey found.
By comparison, in Emerson Collegeâs September poll, 51% of likely California voters said they would vote for the proposition, 34% said they would vote against it and 15% were undecided.
A PoliticoâCitrin CenterâPossibility Lab survey released in August found that at the time just 36% of California voters favor returning redistricting authority to lawmakers from the stateâs current California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
Newsom spearheaded the effort to redraw Californiaâs House map in reaction to Texas Republicans, who proposed and eventually approved a redrawn map that seeks to flip up to five seats from blue to red in the Lone Star State.
Former President Barack Obama claimed on Wednesday that President Donald Trump and the GOP are aiming to âtinker around with to see if they can give themselves an advantage,â Politico reported. Obama has also appeared in recent ads supporting Prop 50.
Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, wrote in a Wednesday X post that Trump and his administration are âexplicitly saying they are going to change the rules of the game in order to insulate themselves from the peopleâs judgement. Prop 50 matters for California and for the entire country.â
Additionally, billionaire megadonor George Soros has reportedly dished out $10 million in an effort to boost Newsomâs redistricting campaign. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, a Democratic megadonor, has shelled out $2 million to bolster the California governorâs gerrymandering efforts, Politico reported on Aug. 29.
Emerson College conducted its survey of 900 likely California voters on Oct. 20 and 21 by contacting respondents found via a voter list by MMS-to-web text. The poll reported a margin of error of +/- 3.19 percentage points.
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