Lawmakers get more territory, constituents

BY JIM MILLER The Press Enterprise
Published: January 18, 2013; 09:58 AM

SACRAMENTO – State Sen. Richard Roth’s Riverside County constituency grew by more than 139,000 people this week, and his 31st Senate District now figuratively includes Lake Elsinore as well as the Canyon Crest and Woodcrest communities.

And state Sen. Bill Emmerson’s sprawling Hemet-to-Rancho Cucamonga district will, for the next two years, also cover a large part of the Coachella Valley.

Addressing a quirk of the once-a-decade redraw of the state’s political map, the Senate has assigned senators to represent almost 4 million residents who otherwise would go senator-less for the 2013-14 legislative session.

The no-senator areas, known as deferrals, stem from the interplay of the Senate’s election schedule and redistricting. One-half of Senate seats are up for election every two years and the 2011 remap moved some residents from odd-numbered districts scheduled to be on the ballot in 2012 to even-numbered districts on the ballot in 2014.

Result: no senator for two years.

Residents in the red parts of the map have been assigned a senator to represent their interests during 2013-14. Green areas are represented by two senators.
Much of the Coachella Valley and Lake Elsinore, for example, were in the former 37th Senate District. Canyon Crest and Woodcrest were in the former 31st Senate District. Redistricting put those areas in the new 28th Senate District, which isn’t up for election until next year.

Figuring out who to make responsible for that territory and elsewhere has been in the works since the November election. The Senate Rules Committee unanimously approved the assignments for an estimated 3,972,984 people in the deferred areas Wednesday.

Elected last fall, Roth represents a Senate district that extends from Corona to Riverside and Moreno Valley. He said the residents of the additional territory assigned to him for 2013-14 will get the same kind of service as residents who actually live in his 31st Senate District.

Roth, D-Riverside, said he will meet soon with Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, who represents much of the no-senator areas assigned to him.

“I want to make sure I make myself available to her and the constituents in this area in any way that I can,” he said Thursday.

Emmerson, R-Redlands, represented the Coachella Valley from 2010 through last year. It makes sense for the Senate to assign him the area for another two years, he said, although it balloons his total constituency to more than 1.2 million people.

Senators could receive additional staff and other resources to handle the load. Those needs will be considered on a case-by-case basis, said Rhys Williams, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

The no-senator phenomenon hits some parts of the state more than others.

Riverside County, which has about 6 percent of the state’s population, represents about 10 percent of the deferrals. Orange County, which has about 8 percent of the state’s population, represents about 18 percent of the deferrals.

The senator receiving the most deferrals is state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana. He has been assigned almost 412,000 people who lack a senator to call their own for the next two years.