A GOP Megadonor Is Trying to Kill California Redistricting

GOP megadonor Charles Munger Jr is spending millions on a campaign against California Democrats’ proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts — including a mailer that falsely suggests progressive lawmakers and organizations oppose the plan.

Santa Clara County Republican Party Chairman Charles Munger appears at a campaign rally attended by gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari in Milpitas, Calif. on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014. Kashkari trails incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown by a wide margin

Charles Munger Jr, along with his sister Molly, has been characterized as a California counterpart to the Koch family. (Paul Chinn / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)


The father of California’s past redistricting reforms has come out against California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts, writing in a New York Times op-ed that he’s opposing the legislative response to President Donald Trump’s nationwide gerrymandering crusade so that he can give “the people an informed choice” and “preserve free and competitive elections.”

But the essay’s author, conservative megadonor Charles Munger Jr, failed to disclose that to do so, he’s funding opposition tactics like a recent mailer that falsely suggested to the state’s liberal voting base that progressive lawmakers and organizations opposed Newsom’s redistricting. The campaign resembled deceptive antiabortion and anti-union efforts that Munger Jr has bankrolled in the past.

While he fashions himself a good-government moderate, Munger Jr’s multimillion-dollar misinformation campaign could be a prelude to just how far powerful and moneyed interests are willing to go to ensure that Republicans win the national redistricting battle and preserve GOP congressional control in the 2026 midterm elections.

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