RANCHO SANTA FE — The San Diego County Independent Redistricting Commission, or IRC, recently approved new boundaries for the county’s voting districts that will be in place for the next decade.
In one of the major changes, Rancho Santa Fe has moved from District 5 to District 3, which is represented by Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer.
District 3 extends northward along the coast to include the City of Coronado, the coastal areas of the City of San Diego, the Cities of Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, and Carlsbad. It also includes the Harmony Grove, Elfin Forest, and Rancho Santa Fe census-designated places.
“As a resident of Encinitas, I know that this new district shares many of the same priorities,” said Lawson-Remer. “Sea-level rise, coastal erosion, stormwater pollution, rising housing costs, and traffic are all important to this district and I will continue to fight for aggressive action from our county government as the representative for District 3.”
The district’s total population is 58.7% White, nearly 18.9% Asian, 13.5% Latino and 1.8% Black.
One of the key duties of the 14-member independent commission is to ensure minority communities are represented in districts in order to preserve their ability to elect candidates they prefer.
“The IRC’s Special Voting Rights Act counsel has stated the opinion that the IRC’s Final Redistricting Plan does not appear to have the purpose or effect of diluting minority voting strength. Minority eligible voters are not sufficiently numerous to constitute a majority in District 3,” said the IRC’s Final Report.
Rancho Santa Fe is a census-designated place with a population of about 2,500 people. The area is about 88 percent White and, in 2019, the median income of Rancho Santa Fe households was about $137,000.
The wealthy suburb has previously been home to celebrities like Bill Gates, Janet Jackson and Bing Crosby.
The area’s demographics are similar to the overall makeup of District 3, which points to why the commission decided to move Rancho Santa Fe from District 5, a district that is 43% White and 41% Latino.
Lawson-Remer is currently facing a recall effort started by local political action committee Undivided San Diego. The initiative will need to garner more than 40,000 signatures by May 2022 in order to force a special election to recall Lawson-Remer.
Since the new boundaries will not take effect until the 2024 election cycle, the recent redistricting will likely have no impact on the current recall campaign that seeks to replace Lawson-Remer.
