Redistricting Plan Will Impact Moorpark

Moorpark will face quite a few changes politically if the California Citizens Redistricting Commission approves the redistricting maps it announced recently.

The 14-person commission, comprised of five Democrats, five Republicans and four members who decline to state a party preference, will reconvene on Aug. 15. At that meeting, the commission will vote to either adopt the maps or reject them; no more revisions will be made, according to the commission's spokesman, Rob Wilcox.

Based on the latest maps, Moorpark and Agoura Hills  will be sharing a state senator as part of Senate District 27. The district would include Moorpark along with the Conejo Valley cities Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. In addition, the zone would extend south to Malibu, east to Chatsworth and Encino and north into Simi Valley and the Stevenson Ranch area of Santa Clarita County.

In all likelihood, Senators Fran Pavley and Tony Stickland would both run for reelection in the new 27th district, which essentially combines parts of their current districts. If the map is approved, Strickland, currently representing Moorpark’s 19th district, would lose Santa Barbara County as well as Ventura and Camarillo. Pavley’s district would lose Oxnard, Port Hueneme and West LA County cities like Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.

“While I have not finalized any plans, I would be honored to represent the people of the newly drawn Senate District 27,” Pavley said in a statement. “I have life-long ties to this district. I was raised in the San Fernando Valley and spent nearly 25 years as a middle school teacher in Moorpark. My husband and I raised our two children in Agoura Hills and I was the first mayor of the city.”

The new district would create a more competitive campaign than the two senators have incurred in past state senate elections. The party split would be 41 percent Democrat and 34 percent Republican, according to Redistricting Partners. Pavley, a Democrat, would lose the substantial Democratic majority of her current district (a more than two-to-one edge in Democrats) while Strickland, a Republican, would no longer have the near 50-50 split he currently has in District 19.

The map for the new congressional district for Moorpark is less confusing, but could mean some difficulties for its congressman, Republican Elton Gallegly.

Under the proposed plan, the 24th congressional district—which is currently comprised of inland Santa Barbara County and much of Ventura County—would expand to cover Oxnard and Port Hueneme but lose the Santa Barbara County area, which greatly changes the demographics of the people Gallegly would be serving should he be reelected in the new district.

Moorpark’s new assembly district would combine with other Ventura County cities such as Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Camarillo and Oxnard.

Assemblyman Jeff Gorell’s office welcomes the change, said Ernie Villegas, district director (Gorell is currently serving with the Navy in Afghanistan).

“When you take a look at how you break it down up and down the state, it’s one of the more fair districts with a 39 to 37 percent (Democrat/Republican) break,” said Villegas.

He said the new district could offer some difficulty in that it encompasses a broad spectrum in terms of the people and businesses represented.

“Whoever is going to represent this district is going to have to understand the Oxnard and Port Hueneme area with the Navy base,” Villegas said, “but it’s also going to require someone to come in with a grasp of the Camarillo, Santa Rosa Valley and Moorpark area.”

Moorpark City Council member Roseann Mikos also approves of the proposed redistricting.

“Overall, I think the redistricting committee did a good job, not just here, but in the state in general,” she said.

Mikos said she doesn't mind changes that would group Moorpark with much of the west county, even though they would dissolve a political band with Simi Valley.

“We have an older population and Latino population. It makes sense that we are with the rest of the county,” she said. “I don’t view us as much like Simi Valley as we are with the rest of the county.”

But not all local politicians are happy with the changes. Agoura Hills Mayor Harry Schwarz is staunchly opposed to some of the proposed districts and, at least for his city, voiced an opposite reaction.

“There’s no logic behind it,” Schwarz said. “Many of the people on that commission, they have no clue about what they’re doing … Some of the commissioners didn’t even know how to pronounce some of the cities.”

He went on to call the redistricting “a totally arbitrary drawing of perimeters around certain cities.”

“It seems to have no rhyme or reason,” Schwarz said.