Gavin Newsom Is Picking a Fight With Arnold Schwarzenegger

Gavin Newsom has been pushing to gerrymander California’s U.S. House seats to retaliate against Donald Trump’s Texas power grab. The California governor has managed to convince many of his fellow Democrats to back this effort, despite their good-government scruples and their past support for the state’s nonpartisan “citizens commission” system for drawing congressional and state legislative maps. Even Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation, who are probably happy with the current map, appear to be onboard with Newsom’s gambit as an emergency measure.

But there’s one political figure whose opposition to the sidelining of nonpartisan redistricting could be problematic: Newsom’s predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the original sponsor of the current system. According to the New York Times, the former governor and Hollywood star may be sending signals he’s not happy with any Golden State backsliding on mapping procedures:

On Friday, Mr. Schwarzenegger’s top aide gave the first indication that the former governor could jump into the national fight over redistricting to try to save the system Mr. Schwarzenegger championed in California.

“His position is that two wrongs don’t make a right,” Daniel Ketchell, Mr. Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff, said in an interview. “He is still committed to independent redistricting in every state around the country. He thinks we have to get rid of gerrymandering to get rid of gridlock and have politicians who actually care about what the people think.”

Mr. Ketchell stopped short of saying the former governor would formally oppose the current governor’s plan. But his remarks signaled that a clash may be brewing between the two leaders, and raised the possibility that Mr. Schwarzenegger could become more involved by using his money, fame and political connections to campaign against Mr. Newsom’s attempt to gerrymander California.

Newsom keeps insisting that he favors a nonpartisan system going forward, and the state constitutional amendment he will almost certainly ask the California legislature to send to voters for a November special election will simply “pause” the citizens commission until the next regular round of redistricting. But if Schwarzenegger’s position is truly “two wrongs don’t make a right,” he may not go along with the argument that the Texas outrage justifies California junking its own reforms, even temporarily. The current system is a legacy item for him, one that he has urged other states to emulate.

Schwarzenegger is, however, in an interesting position vis-à-vis the California Republicans expected to fight Newsom’s initiative most vigorously. The living action figure has been estranged from his old party ever since it became Donald Trump’s loyal army, and he actually endorsed Kamala Harris for president last year. But that could make him the ideal front man for a “no” campaign in a brief but intense autumn campaign over the new congressional map on which Newsom is gambling his otherwise very promising political future, which is expected to culminate in a 2028 presidential bid. If Democrats succeed in making this a simple choice between parties, they should prevail. But Schwarzenegger made his political bones as the tough-talking outsider who disliked the dysfunctional parties that had paralyzed California. It’s a role he may be tempted to reprise.