Newsom unveiling California redistricting effort to counter Trump-backed push in Texas

California is center stage on Thursday in the national battle over congressional redistricting ahead of next year's midterm elections Two-term Democratic Gov Gavin Newsom will band up with congressional Democrats and legislative leaders in the heavily blue state at an event in Los Angeles That's where they're expected to unveil their competition plan to counter the push by President Donald Trump and Republicans to create up to five GOP-friendly congressional districts in red state Texas at the expense of as of now Democrat-controlled seats If you will not stand down I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states Newsom mentioned in a current letter to the president NEWSOM VOWS TO FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE IN CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING BATTLEAnd he argued that Trump was playing with fire with his push for rare but not unheard of mid-decade redistricting Newsom says Trump missed a deadline to stand down on his push to redistrict in Texas DONALD TACO TRUMP AS PLENTY OF CALL HIM MISSED THE DEADLINE CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW MORE BEAUTIFUL MAPS THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE Newsom wrote earlier this week in a social media post posted by his press office which was meant to mock how Trump writes his own social media posts BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR MAGA THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER GN he added The Republican push in Texas which comes at Trump's urging is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to pad their razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats NEWSOM DEMANDS TRUMP GIVE UP TEXAS REDISTRICTING PUSHTrump and his political band are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the midterms But while the Republican push in Texas to upend the current congressional maps doesn't face constitutional constraints Newsom's path in California is much more complicated In Texas Republicans plan to enact the new maps they drew up once enough state Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to prevent the legislature from passing the measure return to Texas The governor is moving to hold a special ballot this year to obtain voter approval to undo the constitutional amendments that created the non-partisan redistricting commission A two-thirds majority vote in the Democrat-dominated California legislature would be needed to hold the referendum Democratic Party leaders are confident they'll have the votes to push the constitutional amendment and the new proposed congressional maps through the legislature Thursday's news conference by Newsom who is considered a likely contender for the Democratic presidential nomination will also serve as a fundraising kickoff to raise massive amounts of campaign cash needed to sell the redistricting push statewide in California SCHWARZENEGGER'S NEW STARING ROLE PUSHING BACK AGAINST NEWSOM'S REDISTRICTING DRIVEThe non-partisan redistricting commission created over years ago remains popular with majority Californians according to populace opinion polling That's why Newsom and California Democratic lawmakers are promising not to scrap the commission entirely but rather replace it temporarily by the legislature for the next three balloting cycles But their efforts are opposed by a number of coalition of figures supportive of the non-partisan commission Among the the majority visible members is former Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger the last Republican elected governor in Democrat-dominated California Schwarzenegger during his tenure as governor had a starring role in the passage of constitutional amendments in California in and that took the power to draw state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and place it in the hands of an independent commission The greater part people don't really think about an independent commission much one way or another And that's both an opportunity and a challenge for Newsom Jack Pitney an American politics professor at California's Claremont McKenna College explained Fox News But he added that it's going to take a lot of effort and money to energize Democrats and motivate them to show up at the polls and that Newsom's effort is all about motivating people who don't like Trump