As the November 4, 2025, special election draws near, California finds itself at the epicenter of a heated national debate over political power, fairness, and the very future of congressional representation. Proposition 50, a measure that would temporarily hand redistricting authority back to the state’s governor and legislature, has ignited passions on all sides, drawing in big money, big personalities, and a host of anxieties about the direction of American democracy.
For many Californians, the first sign of this battle isn’t the barrage of television ads or the fiery speeches—it’s the arrival of their vote-by-mail ballot. According to FOX40, by October 9, 2025, ballots had already landed in mailboxes across the state, with drop boxes opening up and ballot tracking available via the BallotTrak website and the state’s official portals. Yet, as Janna Haynes, a spokesperson for Sacramento County, cautioned, some voters have reported receiving ballots addressed to others. "Contact our voter registration office immediately," Haynes advised, noting that while returning a misdelivered ballot is helpful, notifying officials right away is the best way to ensure everyone gets their vote. "We can tell you that our office has received it, it’s been processed through our mail sorter. And that is some peace of mind for people," she added.
But the logistical hiccups of voting are only the tip of the iceberg. At the center of the campaign against Proposition 50 is Charles Munger Jr., the physicist son of the late billionaire Charles Munger, longtime vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. As reported by KGO, Munger Jr. has poured more than $30 million of his inheritance into defeating Prop 50, making him the largest single donor opposing the measure. He’s no stranger to California’s redistricting wars: two decades ago, he spent $14 million supporting then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s push for an independent redistricting commission, a reform that many now see as a gold standard for fair mapmaking.
In a rare press conference, Munger explained his motivation. "The ordinary person who wants to make the government work for them... they can walk the precincts, they can ring the doorbell, they can call their neighbors and they can vote, but they can't break the gerrymander," he said. For Munger, Prop 50 threatens to dismantle the very system he helped build. "If you tear down the only model in the United States where redistricting reform is universally acknowledged to be both fair and effective, then there is no refuge," he warned.
What, exactly, does Prop 50 propose? According to The Independent, the measure—formally titled "The Election Rigging Response Act"—would suspend California’s independent redistricting commission until 2030, handing the power to redraw congressional districts to the governor and legislature. The aim: to create five new districts favoring Democratic candidates, a direct response to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s recent efforts to gerrymander five additional Republican seats in his state.
Governor Gavin Newsom, Prop 50’s chief proponent, frames the measure as a necessary counterattack. "I loathe Texas gerrymandering. I loathe mid-decade gerrymandering," Newsom declared, as reported by KGO. "It was a national outrage, but the way to beat it is not to become like it." Yet, Newsom and his allies argue that failing to respond would leave California—and, by extension, the Democratic Party—at a severe disadvantage in the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress hangs in the balance.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, speaking at a pro-Prop 50 rally, put it bluntly: "We need to ensure that the 2026 midterm elections are conducted on a fair playing field. We can't sit quietly while they steal congressional seats, rig the next election, and ruin our democracy." The stakes, for many Democrats, could not be higher. As The San Francisco Examiner notes, the measure specifically targets five Republican-held districts, redrawing them to give Democrats a fighting chance at retaking the House.
But not everyone is convinced that the ends justify the means. Critics, including Munger Jr., warn that Prop 50 risks undermining the very reforms that made California a model for fair redistricting. "Once I learned that that was a problem, I inherited money, I said to myself, well, this is something the geek can do," Munger said, reflecting on his earlier activism. He bristles at accusations—amplified in campaign ads—that he is "spending millions to help Trump rig the election." As he told reporters, "If you ask anyone who knows me whether they would describe me as a MAGA anything, they would say, 'Who are you talking about?'"
Meanwhile, the Democratic campaign faces its own challenges. As polling from the California Donor Table reveals, the "democracy under threat" messaging that works in San Francisco doesn’t necessarily resonate in more conservative or swing regions like the Central Valley. Michael Gomez Daly, the group’s senior political strategist, told the Examiner, "They want to talk more about what’s affecting them—jobs, the economy, the cost of housing, child-care costs, etc. That’s what folks really care about." In response, Democrats are investing in local organizations and one-on-one outreach, hoping to boost turnout among infrequent voters and communities of color.
Party leaders are candid about the measure’s partisan origins but argue that fairness is still at its core. "I certainly recognize that there is partisanship that has played an important part in bringing Prop. 50 to voters," California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks told the Examiner. "But at the end of the day I think that voters in red, blue and purple parts of the state have a sense of fairness and understand that when Texas started this fight, it was incumbent on California to respond."
To assuage concerns about a permanent power grab, Prop 50 includes built-in safeguards. The number of districts to be redrawn is proportional to those affected in Texas, and—crucially—the independent commission will be reinstated after the 2030 Census. This temporary nature helped the measure avoid opposition from good-government groups like Common Cause, even as the California Republican Party denounced it as a scheme to "hand the power back to Sacramento politicians."
Still, the measure’s passage is far from guaranteed. While polls suggest majority support, especially in Democratic strongholds, turnout in an off-year special election remains a wild card. As San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung observed, "I think that people who are more engaged and interested in the outcome are the ones who will vote, and that’s where we have to focus."
With early voting underway and both sides racing to define "fairness," the outcome of Proposition 50 will hinge not only on partisan loyalty but on which vision of democracy Californians believe best serves their interests. Whether the state’s experiment in counter-gerrymandering becomes a model for the nation or a cautionary tale will be decided at the ballot box—one misdelivered envelope and one impassioned voter at a time.
