WATSONVILLE—Watsonville residents will have a new representative at the federal level after the June primary following a massive political shift in the recent decennial redistricting process completed last month.
Formerly included in the 20th Congressional District with the rest of the Central Coast, Watsonville will move into the new 18th District that will include the Salinas Valley, San Benito County, Gilroy, Morgan Hill and parts of San Jose.
The move was pitched by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission—a group made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and four people not affiliated with either of those two parties—as a way to create a Latinx majority district that would ultimately benefit communities similar to Watsonville.
But local politicians, business owners and everyday citizens across the region strongly disagreed with that assertion, saying that, among other things, pairing agriculture-based communities such as Watsonville and Salinas with a tech-led community in San Jose would drown out the voice of the former.
A week removed from the commission’s approval of the new district maps, many across the Pajaro Valley are wondering what the future holds for Watsonville and communities like it.
Drawing Lines
Every decade following the release of census data, jurisdictions must adjust their district lines to account for possible shifts in population from one area to another. This is done to ensure that all elected districts remain as fairly represented as possible in government and communities of interest—a group of residents with a common set of concerns that may be affected by legislation—are protected.
Santa Cruz County will be split among three Assembly districts, but Watsonville residents will have a chance to keep the same representation. Robert Rivas, who oversaw the Pajaro Valley in the 30th District, will move into the new 29th district that along with covering Watsonville will contain Gilroy, the Salinas Valley and San Benito County.
Those living on the coast of South Santa Cruz County, however, will have new representation in the Assembly. Assemblymember Mark Stone’s 29th District was split at the center, creating a new 28th and 30th district. La Selva Beach and Pajaro Dunes will be part of the new 30th District that stretches from Live Oak down the coast into San Luis Obispo County, ending near Pismo Beach.
In the State Senate, not much will change for Santa Cruz County, as Senator John Laird’s 17th District only saw significant alterations to the east—it now includes San Benito County and relinquishes parts of South Santa Clara County.
The local congressional district, however, saw massive upheaval that many throughout the Central Coast say could negatively impact the region. The 20th District was split down the spine of the Salinas Valley, creating a new L-shaped 19th District to the west that starts in the Santa Cruz Mountains, runs down the coast into Northern San Luis Obispo County and curves east to hug the southern border of the new 18th District.
Watsonville was the lone Santa Cruz County city left out of the 19th district, a move that Santa Cruz County 2nd District Supervisor Zach Friend says puts Watsonville on a political island.
“I’m not sure how you can look at the new maps and make a case that it’s a good thing for that community or the county,” Friend said.
What’s at Stake
When asked about what the decision could mean for Watsonville, Mayor Ari Parker highlighted the much-needed and often-delayed Pajaro River levee renovation. The Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency will now hope that it can lobby its new Congressional representative to secure some $260 million needed for the project.
“We’ve seen the most movement over the levee issues in the past year under Jimmy Panetta’s office in the 20th Congressional District,” Parker wrote in an email. “Now, another Congressional Representative, certainly new to our area, will be tasked with this issue. An issue that they clearly won’t have the experience or the Federal connections Jimmy Panetta has.”
Parker and the Watsonville City Council sent a letter to the redistricting commission relaying that concern and several others as the 14-member body went into the final week of its public meetings. The letter, like many public comments submitted to the commission from Central Coast residents, argued that the region should be kept together because of the tri-county—Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito—agriculture connection.
Their letter was similar to one Friend penned a few days prior. In it, he argued that splitting Watsonville from the rest of the county would dilute its influence at the federal stage. Friend wrote that he saw parallels between the goals of the new map and the landmark court case Gomez v. the City of Watsonville. Much like that 1988 lawsuit, which found Watsonville’s at-large elections were unconstitutional, the new redistricting map would limit Watsonville’s power to elect a leader of its choosing, Friend wrote.
“This proposal for the new Congressional district brings forth many of the same concerns—diluting Watsonville’s voice on the federal stage and, in particular, diluting the voices of Santa Cruz County farmworkers, non-native speakers and first-generation residents,” he wrote.
Friend called Watsonville’s stance “unprecedented” because of the fact that the city was strongly against the move despite the commission’s belief that it was in the municipality’s best interest.
“They’re saying that [the move] is in the opposite of our interest and to not have that taken into consideration, that’s tough,” Friend says. “I think it’s going to be a 10-year shift where you’re going to need whoever is in Congressman Panetta’s seat to really be backfilling the needs of the city of Watsonville much more than I would rely on a Silicon Valley representative to do.”
Potential Challenge
Panetta has already said he will seek reelection in the new 19th Congressional District, and San Jose Democrat Zoe Lofgren, who has been in Congress since 1994, has said she will do the same in the new 18th District.
Lofgren, who scored the endorsement of the United Farm Workers last week, will likely be the Democratic candidate that Watsonville voters will see on their ballot later this year.
Former State Senator Bill Monning, who exited politics in 2020, says that “it’s tough to make sense” of the commission’s decision to make San Jose the population center for the new 18th District. But he highlighted two possible positives for Watsonville residents.
The first is that having Santa Cruz and Monterey counties split between two representatives could mean that they have twice the say at the federal level if the pair works hand-in-hand on issues that affect their constituents. It’s a theory that he’s heard before, but that he somewhat disagrees with.
The second is a more straightforward takeaway: The establishment of the Latinx majority district could mean Watsonville can elect a candidate that truly represents its large Latinx population.
“For somebody in Watsonville, I think it’s fair to be concerned about the move,” Monning said, “but the question now should be ‘OK, we’re out of Santa Cruz County, but will this give us a representative that better reflects our community?’ I think you have to look at this situation through multiple lenses.”
Former Watsonville Mayor Daniel Dodge, Sr. is a little more pessimistic about those prospects than Monning. Dodge, currently the president of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, says that although the district might be majority Latinx, that does not necessarily translate into a representative that would benefit Watsonville and the Central Coast.
He is also dubious of how a candidate from the Pajaro and Salinas valleys and San Benito County would compete with a candidate backed by Silicon Valley donors.
“It looks good on paper—I think this might give the impression that the Latino population might be represented in this district—but the voting power is still located in Santa Clara County and the money is, too,” Dodge said. “Can a candidate from Watsonville, Salinas, King City, Soledad really beat someone from Silicon Valley? We don’t know. I hate to be negative, but the odds are not great.”
