Tim Wander, Portantino’s district political director, said Portantino is willing to relocate to another district in the San Gabriel Valley to run for Congress.
The California Citizens Redistricting Commission is redrawing the state’s Senate, Assembly, Congressional and Board of Equalization districts based on information from the 2010 Census. The commission is expected to make a final vote on the revised maps on Aug. 15.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village) now live in the same Congressional district, according to the revised maps, meaning they may face off against each other in future elections. [This version has been updated.]
The district in which they live retains a sliver of Burbank in the revised maps. It then spreads into the west San Fernando Valley, taking in areas which both Sherman and Berman currently represent.
Berman said he plans to run in his home district.
“My entire career in public office has been spent representing the San Fernando Valley,” he said in a statement Friday. “This is where I have made my home and raised a family. It is the community that I come home to every week when votes are over in Washington.”
A majority of Sherman’s current district is in the redrawn map, said Scott Abrams, Sherman’s political director, who added that the congressman plans to run in 2012.
The commission basically divided the San Fernando Valley with the other district spanning a large part of the east San Fernando Valley.
The current 27th district splits Burbank, running primarily along Mariposa Street. Under the revised map, the district in which the two Congressmen live will cover the area between Buena Vista Boulevard and Hollywood Way, south of Bob Hope Airport. It includes Warner Bros. Studios and Providence St. Joseph Medical Center.
