Berkshire Heir Defending Calif.'s Independent Redistricting

California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom seeks to use the mass mail-in ballot state's Democrat stranglehold to crush California's independent redistricting commission, but a deep-pocketed key figure in establishing it does not want it to die in the darkness of partisan force.

Charles Munger Jr., a Berkshire Hathaway heir backed by his late father's $2 billion estate, is committed "to protect something that he fought so hard alongside us to win," Common Cause CEO Virginia Kase Solomón told The Washington Post.

But Common Cause, which co-wrote Munger Jr.'s Propositions 11 and 20 to make redistricting independent of the state's Democrat stranglehold, recently returned his $200,000 August donation, saying it would not join the heir in opposing Newsom's Proposition 50.

Prop 50, on the November ballot, seeks to allow state leaders to gerrymander the deep-blue state further, giving Democrats a projected five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Munger's father died in 2023 with $2 billion, and that money is now in the hands of someone committed to balancing the liberal-controlled state of California.

A source told the Post of Munger's resolve to reject Newsom's destruction of independent district maps, saying, "One of the things that he [Munger] said was, 'My father passed away, and he left me with a significant inheritance, and damned if I don't use every resource at my fingertips to fight this thing.'"

Newsom has said his state's redistricting effort is retaliation for Texas Republicans' legal redrawing of its maps, but President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have rebuked it as a retaliation for losing free and fair elections.

Munger Jr. wrote in The New York Times last month that he is "deeply disturbed that my state is considering a return to the days when a single party had unchecked power to draw lines that entrenched its power," pleading, "Do Not Re-Gerrymander California."

"I oppose gerrymandering in any state, regardless of the party responsible for initiating it," he wrote. "Democrats and independents nationally are right to be outraged at the mid-decade partisan gerrymander of Texas, but returning to the evils of partisan gerrymandering in California is not the solution."

The Post tried to paint Munger as a Make America Great Again acolyte, but Munger's ballot measure committee spokesperson at Protect Voters First Act (PVF) rejected the partisan attack.

"Any attempt to paint Charles Munger as MAGA is false and distorts his record," Amy Thoma Tan told the Post.

While Munger Jr. is a Republican who does not criticize President Donald Trump, he has stressed, "I'm a California politics boy," which could be interpreted as more in Arnold Schwarzenegger, non-Trump GOP lane.

"You ask anyone who knows me if they'd describe me as a MAGA anything and they'd say, 'Who are you talking about?'" he said last week, the Post reported.

Munger Jr. declined to be interviewed for its story.

But Newsom is trying to blame MAGA for his hostile takeover of California's independent maps Munger created.

"I want folks to know, every week one person has donated $10 million to defeat us — one person," Newsom said at a September fundraiser to recruit his billionaire donors against Munger.

Munger's stand against the blue-state rulers now pits him against some of his former independent commission allies and high-profile Democrat donors, including Tom Steyer and George Soros, who have collectively funneled tens of millions into supporting Prop 50 to gerrymander the state again, the Post reported.

The campaign has become one of the most expensive ballot fights in the nation, including outside spending surpassing $200 million, with $32 million reportedly coming from Munger to PVF.

Current polling shows Prop 50 hovering around the 50% threshold needed to pass, according to the report.

• Schwarzenegger: Prop 50 a 'Big Scam'
• Tom Steyer Draws Democrats' Ire With Redistricting Ads