Daily Business Report: Thursday, August 7, 2025
California Redistricting: How Newsom’s Plan Will Demolish Hard Fought GOP Gains
By Evan Symon | California Globe
For the last few weeks, threats from Governor Gavin Newsom to redistrict California mid-decade via a special election have grown from pretty empty words to counteract a similar Texas proposal, to a full on serious push. As political commentator and 2026 Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton pointed out Monday, Republicans have 40% of the vote in California, yet only 17% of the House seats. Under Newsom’s proposed gerrymandering plans, the percentage of GOP seats would fall to only 7% in the entire state.
5-6 seats would be recarved to favor Democrats, with the plan to target vulnerable districts in the Central Valley and Southern California – seats that have stayed red for decades despite Democrats doing their best to try to change the districts around. And since Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are now acting in a blind rage trying to counterTexas’ plans, to the point that Texas’ move will trigger a California election and that this will most likely put Newsom’spolitical future in an upward or downward trajectory, it’s wort looking at the district that will be most affected by the change.
It should be noted that this is contingent on Newsom not only getting the election in place, but actually having it win and legally stick. Right now, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to fight the redistricting attempt, with Hilton vowing to bring legal action against both Newsom and Attorney General Bonta if they move forward with their plans for a November special election.
California cut coal from its energy supply. Why it might plug back into fossil fuels
By Alejandro Lazo and Jeanne Kuang | CalMatters
California spent decades building one of the greenest power grids on Earth.
It ditched coal, cut fossil fuels, and built so much solar it now runs the world’s second-largest battery fleet to keep clean power flowing after dark.
Now lawmakers are poised to tie that grid to coal-burning states.
With electricity prices rising and pressure to keep the lights on, California is racing to create an expanded power market with other Western utilities to trade vast amounts of electricity. An expanded market could include climate-aligned states such as Oregon and Washington but potentially also coal-burning ones such as Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico.
The Texas Walkout: All Hat, No Cattle?
By Kim Strassel | Wall Street Journal
It’s the summer news doldrums, which means the national press is pumping up the drama around the Democratic state legislators who’ve fled Texas to block a state GOP gerrymandering plan. Prepare for minute-by-minute accounts of where and how Democrats are hiding in Illinois as well as the latest Republican threats of fines and extradition. All this will be accompanied by media explanations for why—this time—a state walkout will have meaning.
But will it? Gerrymandering is nothing new, nor are state walkouts, including in Texas. In 1870, 13 Texas senators abandoned the chamber and were ultimately arrested to force a quorum. The state saw walkouts in 1979, 2003 and 2021. Wisconsin Democrats also famously fled the state in 2011 (also finding sanctuary in Illinois) in an attempt to block GOP reforms of collective-bargaining laws.
