By Linda Taaffe

A local civil rights coalition is threatening to sue the state of California unless Governor Gray Davis agrees to readjust the new voting boundaries for Santa Clara County that he approved Sept. 28.

The Coalition of Asian-Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting claims that the new boundaries fragment the county’s most heavily populated Asian neighborhoods, potentially diluting the voting power of those communities.

“This almost looks like a deliberate plan to disenfranchise the Asian community … make it impossible for them to have a voice at the state level and prevent them from voting into office someone of their choice,” said Jackie Maruhashi, staff attorney for the Asian Law Alliance.

The new supervisorial districts divide San Jose’s Berryessa neighborhood, which is about 52.9 percent Asian, into four assembly districts. Santa Clara, which is about 30 percent Asian, and the Evergreen area in San Jose, which is about 44.2 percent Asian, are split into two voting districts each. District 5, which includes Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto, Mountain View and Sunnyvale, remained unchanged.

Federal and state law requires the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to adjust district boundaries at least every 10 years to make certain that no area is underrepresented.

The new boundaries, based on census figures and current population trends, are intended to minimize fragmentation of ethnic populations and other communities of interest, said Los Altos resident Penny Lave, a member of the Redistrict Committee, earlier this year.

The boundaries must provide income diversity and balance the number and size of cities within each district, she added.

“There’s a whole lot more to an area than the number of bodies,” Lave said at the start of the redistricting process.

Maruhashi said the coalition testified before the state assembly redistricting committee several times during the mapping process to express concerns about keeping minority groups intact. She said both groups had worked on a plan that seemed agreeable to all.

She said the state assembly approved a plan, at the 11th hour, different from the one it presented earlier.

“It was a complete surprise,” Maruhashi said.

The coalition pressed the governor to veto the assembly’s plan.

Maruhashi said no one on the assembly has offered an explanation for its decision. Assemblywoman Elaine Alquist and Assemblyman Manny Diaz voted against the plan.

Anna Wang, executive director of the Vision 2000 Foundation dedicated to increasing the civic participation of Asian Pacific Americans, said the Asian community feels betrayed by the assembly’s decision.