California Legislative District Profiles March 2005

LIBRARY Institute of Governmental Studies University of California 109 Moses Hall #2370  Berkeley, CA 94720-2370  510-642-1472 (voice)  510-643-0866 (fax)

The following California legislative district profiles were written as assignments in Political Science 171, California Politics, Prof. Bruce Cain, Winter Semester 2005, University of California, Berkeley.

The Assignment: Write a short paper that takes a current Assembly, State Senate, or Congressional district and traces its lineage through the 1981, 1991, and 2001 redistrictings. Were the areas in the current seat divided between other districts previously? What is the political and demographic makeup of the current district? Have the changes in district lines made the current seat safer than its predecessor in 1991 (or predecessors if the area was divided into more than one seat previously)? To what extent has the area itself changed politically or demographically since 1991? Note that the last two questions focus on 1991 to 2001 comparisons. You need only refer to 1981 in describing the lineage. Lastly, can a new redistricting make this seat competitive? If so, how?

Each profile is the work of an undergraduate researcher, not the staff of the IGS Library. All opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

There are no profiles for the following districts:

• Assembly Districts 2, 5, 7, 23, 27, 38, 39, 43, 44, 46, 48, 52, 53, 57, 58, 60, 62, 64, 65, 66, 71, 72, 73, 78, 80.

• Senate Districts 2, 3, 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32.

• Congressional Districts 1, 3, 11, 13, 19, 21, 44, 45, 50.

There are a few districts that more than one student wrote about, in which case the profiles are consecutive in a single file.

Access to the profiles is provided via the following interactive maps. Click on a district number to retrieve the profile.

Assembly District Profiles (map of whole state)

• San Francisco Bay Area
• Los Angeles Area
• San Diego Area

Senate District Profiles

Congressional District Profiles (map of whole state)

• San Francisco Bay Area
• Los Angeles Area

Prepared by the staff of the IGS Library. Send comments to igsl@uclink.berkeley.edu.