SUPERVISORS NEED A MAJORITY LATINO DISTRICT

It is a matter of trivia but hardly a trivial matter that when Nora Vargas became a San Diego County supervisor in District 1 last year, she was the first candidate of Latino descent elected to the board in 50 years. Now the county’s Independent Redistricting Commission has a chance to make a statement about this unacceptable state of affairs that is in sync with its obligation to create electoral districts with common geographic, economic or cultural interests. In a county where Latinos make up more than a third of the population, the commission should establish a district that is majority Latino.

This may be in the works. Some of the draft maps being considered by the commission would create a district extending from communities in South County up the coast to Barrio Logan. But some of the maps would borrow from past maps that diluted Latino voting strength by grouping mostly White communities with South County in a district.

There are other redistricting scenarios of interest, such as the idea of grouping coastal communities from Del Mar to Oceanside. There is also considerable alarm in East County over a draft map that would wipe out present borders by grouping some of its largest cities with communities in the city of San Diego. It’s hard to grasp the logic of having Santee and La Jolla in the same district or Santee and Lakeside being in separate districts.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board hopes the redistricting commission can figure out how best to respond to these competing concerns. But the panel’s top priority must be drawing a majority Latino district. If the commission fails to do so, its members will have failed their task — and quite possibly have broken federal laws intended to preserve the voting rights of communities of color.