With less than a month until Nov. 4’s special election, billboards, mailers and advertisements in support and opposition of Proposition 50 are reaching a fever pitch. But in California’s 22nd Congressional District — one of the handful of districts that would be most affected if Prop. 50 were to pass — some residents remain unfamiliar with the measure.
As CalMatters’ Maya C. Miller explains, the 22nd District in San Joaquin Valley currently spans parts of Kings, Tulare and Kern counties. Under Prop. 50, it would include the northwest corner of the city of Fresno and smaller towns like Kerman.
Democrats are eyeing the 22nd as one of the five possible districts to pick up during the 2026 midterms — ousting incumbent U.S. Rep. David Valadao who has represented the region in Congress for 10 of the last 12 years. One of his challengers, Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains of Bakerfield, is one of the more moderate Democrats in the state Legislature, and was the sole Democrat to vote against the plan to fast-track the special election.
But some locals Maya spoke to haven’t heard much about Prop. 50, and are more concerned with California’s rising cost of living, access to water for their farms and the threat of immigration raids. Others, however, told Maya they see Prop. 50 as a “power grab” that would further limit Republican voters.
- Jenny Holterman, a fourth-generation farmer in Kern County: “This is not a game. This is our livelihood. This is our representation that you’re playing with.”
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🗓️ CalMatters Events in your community
- Sacramento: Should Californians support mid-decade redistricting? Join us for a debate on Oct. 14 presented by CalMatters, Capitol Weekly and the UC Student and Policy Center. Register.
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Other Stories You Should Know
Newly minted CA laws
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed nearly 100 bills into law Monday, including more than a dozen related to consumer protections. Two other notable bills that passed were:
- Ad volume levels: Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are banned from playing ads at significantly higher levels than the programming they accompany. Read more from CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow.
- Pricing algorithms: To address concerns that businesses charge customers higher costs through the use of algorithms, tech platforms are prohibited from requiring independent businesses to use their algorithmic pricing recommendations. Read more here.
Serving a six-year term as sheriff?
A change California made three years ago to one of its election laws has the potential to prolong the term of an embattled county sheriff who is fighting efforts to remove her from office, writes CalMatters’ Nigel Duara.
San Mateo County is currently trying to remove its sheriff, Christina Corpus, from her post after a county investigator found she had violated policies on nepotism and conflicting relationships. Voters overwhelmingly approved a measure in April to grant its board of supervisors the authority to remove the county sheriff, and if they are successful, Corpus would be the state’s first county sheriff to be removed from office.
But if they don’t succeed, Corpus, who was elected in 2022, could stay in office and won’t have to face voters again until 2028. Her unusual six-year term is due to a change in California that places sheriff and district attorney elections in the same years as presidential ones. California Democratic legislators pushed the change in an effort to boost voter turnout for county office elections, which Republicans lawmakers opposed.
As for Corpus, San Mateo’s board of supervisors is expected to hold a hearing to review the recommendations of a retired superior court judge, who on Monday found cause to remove Corpus.
And lastly: Supreme Court sides with Trump
The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump’s administration a win last month, allowing federal immigration officials to continue conducting “roving patrols” and profiling people based on their appearance in Southern California. CalMatters’ Wendy Fry and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on the ruling as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.
SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: The tit-for-tat gerrymander duel that underscores Prop. 50 symbolizes the perpetual power struggles that have replaced governance in national politics.
As the special election draws near, Californians need to ignore the false claims about our elections coming out of the federal government, writes Gowri Ramachandran, director of elections and security in the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government program.
Other things worth your time:
The voters who will swing CA’s Prop. 50 battle // Politico
When will CA start to really feel the pain from the federal shutdown? // The Sacramento Bee
Newsom says he’ll pull CA from governors group if it won’t condemn Trump deployments // San Francisco Chronicle
Top CA Republican vowed to cut waste, corruption. His spending says otherwise // The Sacramento Bee
CA consumers get surprise sticker shock ordering imports online // Los Angeles Times
Majestic wild horses are trampling Mono Lake’s otherworldly landscape. The feds plan a roundup // Los Angeles Times
SF rent surge is outpacing every big US city. Here’s what’s driving the increase // San Francisco Chronicle
The volunteers tracking ICE in LA // The New Yorker
WME talent agency opts clients out of Sora update as AI anxiety deepens // Los Angeles Times