The Seal Beach council this week unanimously approved a resolution opposing Prop. 50, which would redraw congressional district maps in California.
Due to space limits, what follows is not a transcript but highlights from the meeting.
The resolution was requested by District Five Councilman Nathan Steele. (Steele recently suspended his campaign for the 72nd Assembly District, which launched on Sept. 10.) According to Steele and other council members, Seal Beach would be divided into three Congressional districts and have its representation diminished as a result.
During the public comment part of the meeting, resident Catherine Showalter asked where staff got that information. She said she could not find any source that confirmed that Seal Beach would be divided.
Steele said he would send her the link to the map if she would be good enough to email him.
Steele said Old Town and the Hill would be placed into a district with the top part of Long Beach and goes all the way down through Huntington Beach, and Costa Mesa.
“The Naval Weapons Station is being swept into District 45,” Steele said. He said College Park East would be “swept” into a district that goes all the way up through Whittier, Lakewood, and others.
“We have little in common in an LA County city like Long Beach,” Steele said.
“Under the new maps, we will have three separate congressmen, none of which will have much obligation to pay any attention to us at all,” Steele said.
He said Seal Beach had been getting good attention from Congressman David Min (47th Congressional District). “He is going to be taken away from us,” Steele said.
He said Seal Beach was getting whittle down. “We’re small enough as it is,” he said.
In a letter to Seal Beach District Three Councilwoman/Mayor Lisa Landau, residents and Cathy Goldberg urged the council to table the resolution and leave the matter to voters. “Seal Beach is ‘purple’—shifting back and fourth from red to blue and back again. It would not be appropriate for the council to presume they speak for us on this state matter,” the Goldbergs wrote.
“For the record, we both strongly support prop 50 as it is in response to the Texas mid-cycle redistricting that attempts to skew the 2026 election. It also sunsets after 2030 with the new census data and we return to an independent committee,” the Goldbergs wrote.
“Both of us are disappointed that Taxes and now other red states have taken this route. We are strong supporters of the independent committee that Californians voted for,” the Goldbergs wrote.
Showalter made similar arguments in support of Prop. 50.
She argued that Seal Beach would be moved into a district focused entirely of coastal areas. She said the council resolution does not specifically say that Seal Beach would be divided into three Congressional districts if Prop. 50 is approved. She urged the council not to approve the resolution. She asked the council to use the city website to inform the public in a non-partisan way and encourage the public to vote.
District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal, Landau, and District Two Councilman Ben Wong also spoke in support of the resolution.
“The concern, for me, is that our voice becomes very diluted,” Senecal said.
She said there was a federal bill being proposed that would prohibit mid-decade redistricting nationwide and require every state to establish independent redistricting.
Background
“On August 21, 2025, California Senate Bill No. 280 was signed into law, calling a special election on November 4, 2025 to consider Proposition 50, The Use of Legislative Congressional Redistricting Map Amendment, otherwise known as the ‘Election Rigging Response Act’,” according to the staff report by Deputy City Clerk Brandon DeCriscio.
“During the Regular Meeting of the City Council on September 8, 2025, Mayor Pro Tem Steele requested an item be placed on a future agenda for the Council to consider a resolution setting forth the City Council’s official position in opposition to California Proposition 50,” DeCriscio wrote.
“If approved, Proposition 50 authorizes temporary changes to the California Congressional District Maps through 2030. Traditionally, redistricting occurs once every ten years, after the United States Census. The current Congressional Districts were certified in December of 2021,” DeCriscio wrote.
“Under the proposed Congressional District Maps if Proposition 50 is approved by voters, the City of Seal Beach would have its representation divided between three (3) separate districts, District 41, District 42, and District 45,” DeCriscio wrote.
“Currently, the City is a member of Congressional District 47, represented by Congressman Dave Min. The City and its officials have worked with Congressman Min on several initiatives including the San Gabriel River Trash Mitigation Project,” DeCriscio wrote.
“Mayor Pro Tem Steele has brought up concerns that the proposed redistricting would limit Seal Beach’s overall representation at the congressional level,” DeCriscio wrote.
“The text of the proposed resolution was provided by Mayor Pro Tem Steele,” DeCriscio wrote.
