Their brotherly love transcends political divide

Jim Ross has had a long and fruitful career as a Democratic campaign strategist. Among his victories was electing Gavin Newsom as San Francisco mayor.

- MARK Z. BARABAK

TOM, left, and Jim Ross are on opposite sides of California's redistricting issue.

Tom Ross has enjoyed similar success on the Republican side. He counts Kevin McCarthy’s election to the Legislature and, later, Congress, among his wins.

But perhaps his most important achievement, Tom Ross said, was working on the 2008 campaign that established California’s independent redistricting commission —“the gold standard” for fair and impartial political map-making. “It needs protecting,” he said.

No, said Jim Ross. It needs overriding.

He backs Newsom's effort to undo the commission’s work in favor of a gerrymander that could boost Democratic chances of winning the House in 2026 — or else, he fears, “there will be ongoing Republican domination of politics ... for decades to come.”

The two are brothers who, despite their differences, harbor an abiding love and respect for one another, along with an ironclad resolve that nothing — no campaign, no candidate, no political issue — can or ever will be allowed to drive a wedge between them.

“Tom’s the best person I know. The best person I know,” Jim, 57, said as his brother, 55, sat across from him at a local burrito joint, tearing up. “There’s issues we could go round and round on, which we're not going to do.”

“Especially,” said Tom, “with someone you care about and love.”

That sort of fraternal bond, transcending partisanship and one of the most heated political fights of this charged moment, shouldn’t be unusual or particularly noteworthy — even for a pair who make their living working for parties locked in furious combat. But in these vexing and highly contentious times it surely is.

Maybe there’s something others can take away.