For the first time ever, California will lose representation in Congress as part of a process that happens once every decade due to newly released census data.
That also means a re-drawing of district lines and a re-apportionment of the 435 members of the House of Representatives among the states.
California still will have the largest delegation in the House when it moves from 53 to 52 seats. It’s unclear which district the state will lose, as the redistricting process remains ongoing, with many scenarios still in play.
Some have speculated a seat could be taken from the Los Angeles area, which has lost population over the past 10 years.
“If you look at the census estimates, a lot of the LA County US House districts are underpopulated at this point,” Kyle Kondik, Managing Editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center For Politics said on KCBS Radio's 'The State of California'. “That might makes sense for where you could end up eliminating a seat. That would probably end up being a democratic seat if that did in fact happen.”
Could Northern California be endanger of losing a seat? Kondik thinks it’s a possibility.
“Northern California is not really all that popular so you’re only talking about a few districts,” Kondik said. “Some of those districts are going to have to get bigger to accommodate for slower population growth.”
He did note that some areas like Stockton and San Jose are actually growing faster than the state.
The final decision will be determined by a non-partisan commission, though the first time this redistricting process was used 10 years ago, Kondik remembered it benefited one party more than the other.
“It was a nominally non-partisan process but Democrats were able to really benefit from it in part because of Democrats really participating more in the process. We’ll just have to see where it goes (this year),” Kondik said.
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