Well, so much for the 40th ...

Gavin Newsom is 100-percent correct in his approach. But we're not beating Young Kim.

So Friday was even crazier than Thursday—and Thursday was crazy enough in this dysfunctional herpes-soaked cesspool we refer to as Donald Trump’s America.

In case you fell off a cliff or found yourself locked in a room listening to Oingo Boingo albums and eating fried Oreos, yesterday afternoon marked the moment when we would learn about California’s preposed redistricting—a direct result of the woefully unpopular Trump and a bunch of Texas yahoo asswipes teaming up to fix the 2026 midterms.

So … hey!

I guess the biggest takeaway (for this site, at least) is that Young Kim’s newly defined CA-40 seat is out of play, and all the debate over Perry Meade or Esther Kim Varet or Christina Gagnier is, to be blunt, deader than a squirrel eating peanut butter off the third rail. I don’t mean to sound all Debbie Downer, but reality is reality, and when the new 40 is official (which will almost certainly happen in November) it’ll look like this (props to the OC Register for the graphic and explanation) …

With Trump’s sagging poll numbers and Young Kim’s backbone-less corpse, we had an OKish shot when the Republican-Democrat divide was a couple of points. But the new district will be waaaaaaaaay more conservative, and it’s fairly inevitable that—sooner or later—Kim Varet, Meade and Gagnier (the three front runners) step away to devote their energies toward something more attainable. Like, say, managing the Angels toward back-to-back World Series crowns. Or inventing levitational chewing gum. Or piecing together a Juice WRLD hologram.

I reached out to Joe Kerr yesterday, and the former fire chief and 2024 CA-40 Democratic nominee (he lost to Kim) told me—hell or high water—he’s sticking. “Redistricting doesn’t change my commitment,” he said. “I’m in this race to fight for working families in CA-40, and no set of lines on a map will alter that. I’m committed to making sure our community finally gets the fair representation it deserves.”

In this moment, if you put a gun to my head (something that sounds increasingly entertaining with every cruel act emerging from Washington), I’d say we’re probably headed toward Kerr II: Electric Boogaloo in the 2026 election. Which means a rematch slightly less anticipated than “Independence Day: Resurgence.” Although I believe Joe deserves props for his convictions and devotion toward the race, he would be squaring off against a well-funded, well-liked incumbent in a conservative district while receiving little-to-no (emphasis on the no) money from the national or state Democrats. This is how it all works in the grotesque world of American democracy: The party decides which races are winnable and which are not, and determines where to funnel dough. CA-40 would no longer be deemed in play and Kerr (again—huge props for giving it his all) would be left for roadkill.

With the new district lines, his odds of winning are about the same as Ozzy Osborne opening up for Boyz II Men when they come to Los Angeles next week.

Ozzy Osborne died on July 22.

•••

Ultimately, this is all a good thing. Or, really, a necessary thing. Donald Trump has corrupted America. He cares not for rules or fairness, and will do all within his power to transform our democracy into a dictatorship. When there is a decision to make, he always chooses cruelty and gluttony. Without fail. Texas went along with his wishes, and Gavin Newsom had no choice but to pretzel twist our state to match the awfulness and give the Democrats a leg to stand on. It blows that we’ve hit this low.

Truly, it blows.

I feel bad for Perry, for Esther, for Christina, for Joe … for all the CA-40 Democrats who devoted time, money, energy to try and force Young Kim out. I also hope Young Kim looks around and sees that everything her lord and savior (Trump) touches ultimately dies. Yeah, she’ll win again. But at what cost to the GOP? To conservative Californians wanting a voice? To America?

Alas, politics is a grotesque carnival of the absurd, and the Republican Party has chosen to kneel before a conman.

I love this state, I love our governor.

I hate that it came to this.