If you are wondering whether last week’s maps published by the Citizens Redistricting Commission will affect local governments; the answer is an unequivocal yes.

More often than not, government operates as a ladder for elected officials. After getting their feet wet as a volunteer on a city commission, a resident runs for city council. The progression of their service then takes them to a county board of supervisors, the Assembly, the Senate, and then several continue to seek seats in the Congress or on the Board of Equalization.

However, after Friday’s maps were released, that natural progression has been reorganized. Some districts have multiple, high-powered officials in them; others are vacant.

In San Francisco, two state senators are now sharing a single district. Fortunately, that merging seems to have an easy solution: one will run for mayor of San Francisco.

But other changes can affect local governance, as communities and counties are split. The concept of “communities of interest” would group together areas that share similar economic, social, and environmental interests, to ensure they maintain powerful voices in the state legislature. But as some of these communities are split, they must work to rediscover their voice in Sacramento, and how to continue advocating for policies and positions that are important to residents.

From the Napa Valley Register:

Several people have asked me what impacts the statewide redistricting maps being drawn by the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) will have on local redistricting efforts.

The Board of Supervisors, the Napa County Board of Education and the Napa Valley College Board all must change their supervisor district and trustee area boundaries respectively for the next decade beginning with the 2012 election cycle. The three bodies have contracted with our office to prepare proposals for new districts and trustee areas based on “one person one vote” and other legally mandated criteria. We will be holding public hearings on the proposed Supervisor Districts in American Canyon on Tuesday, July 19 at the City Council meeting at 6 p.m. and in Yountville on Tuesday Aug. 2 at the Town Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. Public hearings on the other two proposals will be held shortly thereafter.

Read the full article here.

AND

From the San Francisco Gate:

The wide open field. Ranked choice voting. Public financing. The push for interim Mayor Ed Lee to run for a four-year term despite vowing not to. Whether the field of declared candidates could be any more boring.

There are plenty of unknowns in this November’s mayor’s race, and here’s another wrinkle: how the state’s redistricting process could play a factor.

Read the full article here.