Why So White?

When I first heard about Santa Barbara County creating an Independent Redistricting Commission, I was excited about this bipartisan process. However, I have been thoroughly upset as the commission has failed to accurately represent the residents of Santa Barbara County.

The commission is made up of nearly all white residents when 46 percent of our county is Hispanic or Latino. The commissioners have been more concerned with the party preference of candidates than with representing the racial diversity of our County.

I am disappointed to see that our bipartisan commission has turned somewhat political, and I hope that the current commissioners will consider choosing another Latino commissioner after the resignation of Jannet Rios to provide more representation to a large portion of our community that is currently extremely underrepresented in the redistricting process.