Greenberg: Obama’s Sanctimonious Prop 50 Endorsement

Barack Obama’s endorsement video advertisement of California’s Proposition 50 is a calculated betrayal of voter trust, cloaked in the sanctimonious guise of fairness.

In a slick video posted on October 14, 2025, Obama declares, “California, this November 4th, the whole country is counting on you. Prop 50…preserves independent redistricting, and lets the people decide.”

Friends, this is a flagrant lie, and Yours Truly rightly blasted Obama on Twitter/X in response:

“LIAR. OMG such a liar. California has independent redistricting NOW. We voted for it years ago. WE HAVE IT. This Prop 50 literally cancels independent redistricting going forward for several election cycles. It literally UNDOES the will of the voters.”

LIAR. OMG such a liar.
California has independent redistricting NOW. We voted for it years ago. WE HAVE IT. This Prop 50 literally cancels independent redistricting going forward for several election cycles. It literally UNDOES the will of the voters. https://t.co/AqBIE8BE6T

— Richie Greenberg (@greenbergnation) October 14, 2025

Such fury against him is justified—Obama’s rhetoric is a deliberate distortion to push a Democratic Party power grab that dismantles California’s already voter-approved redistricting system years ago .

California’s independent redistricting process is a victory against gerrymandering, approved through voter mandates in 2008, called the Voters First Act. It created the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC), a 14-member panel—five Democrats, five Republicans, four independents, randomly selected by the State Auditor after stringent vetting for neutrality— which draws state legislative and Board of Equalization maps without political interference. The CRC’s selection process prohibits lobbyists, donors, and elected officials to ensure neutrality.

In 2010, California’s voters expanded its authority with Proposition 20, passing with 61.5% approval to include congressional districts. Note: that same year, Democrats tried to sabotage it with Proposition 27 but voters rejected it by a resounding 59.4%.

The CRC’s maps, drawn post-Census in 2011 and 2021, prioritize compactness, community cohesion, and Voting Rights Act compliance and disregarding incumbent protection or partisan rigging. Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruled on Arizona’s similar independent commission, and affirmed its constitutionality.

Today, we face Proposition 50, deceptively titled the “Election Rigging Response Act,” which obliterates this framework. Rushed onto the ballot by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-controlled legislature, this ploy takes the task of redrawing district maps away from the independent CRC and allows politicians to redraw those maps for the upcoming 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections, bypassing the CRC entirely. This isn’t “leveling the playing field,” as Obama falsely claims—it’s a blatant attempt to rig U.S. Congress for Democratic Party dominance.

Obama’s claim that Prop 50 “preserves independent redistricting over the long term” is a bold-faced lie. The CRC’s authority, enshrined in the state constitution via Props 11 and 20 which we previously approved years ago, would be taken away until after the 2030 Census, directly defying voters’ will who twice endorsed citizen-led redistricting. His assertion that it “lets the people decide” is absurd—Prop 50 swaps a transparent, randomized independent citizen process with maps drawn by highly-partisan insiders to favor Democratic Party incumbents.

The hypocrisy from Obama is outrageous. His endorsement for the ballot measure, backed by Newsom and mega-donors like George Soros (who’s poured millions into the “Yes on 50” campaign) fuels a $200+ million ballot war as of October 2025.  Soros’s funding, estimated at $20 million through allied PACs, dwarfs conservative efforts, yet GOP activists are rightly flooding airwaves and Twitter/X with ads exposing Prop 50’s threat to fair maps. Obama’s lie recasts this highly partisan heist as a “democratic virtue”, spitting on California’s anti-gerrymandering legacy. Our outrage channels fury of all voters who see through this cynical ploy by a former president once hailed as a beacon of reform, now exposing him as a willing pawn in Sacramento’s national power grab.