Independent Redistricting Commissions: The Next Step to Ensure Fair and Equitable Redistricting in San Mateo County
We live in an era of deep distrust of democratic institutions and disillusionment with our politics. Our democracy, at the national level, has rarely felt more fractured or more vulnerable. By adopting independent redistricting commissions, local governments can send a message to residents that our County is building a better democracy here at home. Independent redistricting commissions take one of the highest-stakes democratic processes that a local government will handle in a decade and gives it to a highly qualified and diverse group of residents of varying political persuasions. It helps ensure redistricting processes that are inclusive, accessible, honest, trustworthy, and driven by the community, and in so doing, restores faith in government and our local politics. Learn more about redistricting commissions and how to bring one to your city.
Join Thrive and California Common Cause Executive Director Jonathan Mehta Stein for this important training.
Cosponsored by The Grove Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, Menlo Together.
*Zoom information will be sent to registered attendees.
SPEAKERS
Jonathan Mehta Stein, Executive Director, California Common Cause
Jonathan Mehta Stein is a civil rights attorney and long-time democracy reform advocate. Jonathan became the Executive Director of California Common Cause on May 1, 2020, after 10 years on the California Common Cause Board of Directors and four years as Board Chair. He previously spent four years as the head of the Voting Rights & Census Program at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, where he worked to increase access to California’s democracy for historically disenfranchised communities, including immigrant and limited-English speaking voters, communities of color, low-income communities, and people with disabilities. Jonathan previously worked as a voting rights staff attorney for the ACLU of California and served as a commissioner and chair of the City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission. While receiving his MPP and JD from UC Berkeley, Jonathan served as the Student Regent on the UC’s Board of Regents, where he advocated for the interests of the 230,000 students of the UC system.
