Lines of power: '80s redistricting lessons for today

A trip back in time shows the political benefits far from clear.

- BY JAMES RAINEY

HOLLYNN D'LIL Getty Images U.S. REPS. George Miller, left, and Phil Burton hold a meeting with disability rights activists in 1977.

A powerful California Democrat with national political aspirations gerrymandered political maps to elect more Democrats to the House of Representatives.

He defended the redistricting as the only fair response to Republican power grabs in other states and to a Republican president intent on dismantling government.

No, this is not about Gavin Newsom in 2025.

Today, I want to take you back to 1981 and the redistricting power play engineered by Rep. Phil Burton. The powerful and bombastic San Francisco lawmaker boasted that his tortured political boundaries were “my contribution to modern art.”

The net result became clear in the 1982 midterm election: Democrats leapt to a 28-17 advantage in House seats in California, a net gain of six seats from the prior Congress. That helped Democrats gain 26 seats nationally, as they sought to offer a strong alternative to Republican President Reagan.

It's worth recalling those four-decade-old battles today, as California once again finds itself at the center of a national maelstrom about how our national legislature should be elected and what is fair.

Burton was driven by political ambition