Ali Mercado

For goodness sakes, I was on the floor battling earlier this year if buying a 16- or 17-year-old child for sex should be a felony.

That was a real conversation that we had to have and fight for on the floor, and it wasn't until the public

got involved and absolutely exposed the disgustingness that we were even discussing this, that then Gavin Newsom got involved and said, yeah, we need to do something about this.

We aren't funding that Prop 36 that I just told you about.

Why?

Because we have a $20 billion deficit, and Gavin Newsom said the voters wanting this isn't enough.

But now he's going to spend $250 million on a special election, which is a $250 million contribution to his 2028 presidential campaign from the California taxpayers.

It's ridiculous.

It's a slap in the face to voters in California.

Let's give you another history lesson.

Let's go all the way back to 2010.

when voters overwhelmingly once again supported an independent redistricting commission.

This independent redistricting commission had Republicans, Democrats, and independents.

It allowed voters to pick their politicians, not politicians to pick their voters.

These people on this commission couldn't even speak

unless they were in a public room using a computer that they could draw the maps publicly and take public input.

It was hours and hours and hours of public input.

There were translators that were made available.

This was spanning throughout the state.

And although I still don't believe the Independent Redistricting Commission was without flaw, it was still a much better option than backroom deals that are happening right now when it comes to the drawing of these lines.