Report The 2020 Census and Political Representation in California By Eric McGhee, Sarah Bohn, Tess Thorman Oct 9, 2018 If the 2020 Census does a poor job of counting traditionally undercounted populations and immigrant communities, the state could easily lose one of its 53 seats in the House of Representatives.
blog post Video: Celebrating 100 Years of Women in the California Legislature By Susan Gluss May 16, 2018 In an event celebrating the 100-year anniversary of women in the California legislature, female lawmakers—past and present—reflect on how the environment has, and hasn't, changed for women in Sacramento.
blog post The 100th Anniversary of Women in the California Legislature By Mark Baldassare, Deborah Gonzalez May 10, 2018 It has been 100 years since the first women were elected to California's legislature, yet men still vastly outnumber women in the state government.
Report Political Reform and Moderation in California’s Legislature: Did Electoral Reforms Make State Representatives More Moderate? By Eric McGhee May 8, 2018 California implemented several important election reforms at the start of this decade. Each was intended in part to promote more flexible, moderate decision-making among California’s elected officials in an era of increasingly acrimonious partisan conflict. This report looks at the moderating effect of three reforms: the shift of authority to draw legislative and congressional districts from the state legislature to an independent redistricting commission; the loosening of term limits for state legislators; and a highly open “top two” primary system.
blog post The Gender Gap in California Politics By Dean Bonner Apr 5, 2018 Since 2014, support for Democratic candidates among female likely voters in California has surged. Will women voters make a pivotal difference in midterm elections?
blog post Video: Assessing California’s Redistricting Commission By Mary Severance Mar 21, 2018 In a radical departure, California empowered an independent commission to create new electoral maps. A new PPIC report assesses the maps' fairness and competitiveness to both major political parties.
event Assessing California’s Redistricting Commission Mar 16, 2018 The creation of the Citizen Redistricting Commission (CRC) in 2008 marked a radical departure for California. Many expected the commission to be fairer to the two major parties and lead to more competitive elections. Has the first CRC plan met these expectations? PPIC researcher Eric McGhee will describe the measures he used to evaluate fairness and competitiveness—including his own measure, the “efficiency gap,” which is used in litigation currently before the Supreme Court—and outline his findings.
Report Assessing California’s Redistricting Commission: Effects on Partisan Fairness and Competitiveness By Eric McGhee Mar 5, 2018 The creation of the Citizen Redistricting Commission (CRC) in 2008 was a radical departure from California’s previous redistricting process, which had been directed by the legislature with little public input and no official rationale. Many hoped that, in addition to meeting legally mandated representational and geographic goals, the CRC would produce electoral maps that were fair to the two major parties and more competitive than the maps that had been drawn by the legislature.
blog post Partisan Gerrymandering and the Role of Social Science in the Courts By Eric McGhee Oct 23, 2017 The Supreme Court has invited social science to play an unusually significant role in the Wisconsin gerrymandering case.