California Media Ignores Redistricting ‘Power Couple’ Jodi Hicks and Paul Mitchell

She is the CEO and President of Planned Parenthood Affiliates California. He is “setting the lines for Democrats’ mid-decade gerrymander of California’s congressional map.” Yet nowhere in two articles does Politico declare that Jodi Hicks and Paul Mitchell are married.

The Globe reported Thursday:

“California Governor Gavin Newsom had a DNC-style rally in Los Angeles Thursday, and invited potty mouth leaders of Planned Parenthood, the California Teachers Association, SEIU CA, Senator Adam Schiff, and other Democrat politicians to speak, all praising abortion, big labor, big teacher labor… Oh, and redistricting, as an after thought.”

It was comical to hear Jodi Hicks, CEO & President of Planned Parenthood say “we are doubling down on our values here in California,” and then whine that Planned Parenthood has had their federal funding cut. She was the only speaker to mention “redistricting” up front, but she did it in the context of the “anti-choice justices appointed to the Supreme Court.”

“You take away our freedom; we’ll take away your seats,” Hicks threatened Republicans.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

What is so much more interesting than Jodi Hicks’ abortion rhetoric is that she is married to Paul Mitchell, Gov. Newsom’s redistricting map creator tasked with creating five new Democratic members of Congress.

Named the #5 political power couple in Capitol Weekly’s Top 10 Capitol power couples in 2024, it’s no coincidence that Hicks was a prominent speaker at Newsom’s DNC-rally Thursday and Mitchell is drawing the news districts for the governor.

However, State political media appears reluctant to identify this power couple and their close proximity to Newsom, as well as their influence. Hmmm. Why?

Will McCarthy of Politico completely ignored the Hicks/Mitchell marriage in his profile piece on Paul Mitchell today:

“Mitchell was tapped this summer by the state’s Democratic leaders to engineer Gov. Gavin Newsom’s brazen attempt to match Texas’s mid-decade partisan gerrymander of its U.S. House map with one that gives Democrats offsetting gains in California.

But it seems pretty relevant in this developing redistricting story. Especially since Mitchell usually charges for his map making efforts, it will be interesting to see if, when, and where his outputs get reported as a contribution, a gift or an expenditure. Maybe Mitchell is just volunteering his time and expertise?

I sincerely doubt it.

This is Capitol Weekly’s description of the #5 power couple, noting that “It’s almost unfair how influential Jodi Hicks and Paul Mitchell are as a couple”:

Jodi Hicks and Paul Mitchell

It’s almost unfair how influential Jodi Hicks and Paul Mitchell are as a couple. Hicks is the CEO and president of the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, arguably the state’s most active combatant in this era’s culture war over abortion. Her leadership on the issue stretches far beyond the boundaries of the Golden State, with her voice carrying considerable weight nationwide. Mitchell, as the vice president of Political Data, Inc. and owner of Redistricting Partners, is seemingly every California news outlet’s favorite election analyst. A top pollster, Mitchell has a knack for not only plumbing California election data for original insights, but also talking about them in an engaging, easy-to-understand way. These two are about as high profile as you get in the Capitol community. (Note: Hicks is on the board of Open California, the publisher of Capitol Weekly.)

In this Politico article, reporter Melanie Mason just can’t bring herself to tie Jodi Hicks and Paul Mitchell together either. Yet she goes out of her way to make sure readers know Jodi Hicks is not related to Rusty Hicks, chairman of the California Democrat Party.

“POLITICO spoke to some of the most influential forces in California politics — including both state parties, Planned Parenthood and a leading expert on the state’s Latino voters — to share their initial take on the 2024 election results, and the questions that they’ve not yet answered.”

Democrats’ ghoulish obsession with abortion has cost them significant votes with Hispanics.

Politico continues:

“Nationally, Democrats’ reliance on abortion rights as an electoral silver bullet clearly came up short. But Planned Parenthood California is pushing back on the narrative that a campaign centered on reproductive rights was entirely a disappointment.”

Here’s where Politico is negligent in reporting real political power relationships:

“It’s too early to have that type of knee-jerk reaction. We are two years post-Dobbs, where we’ve had a protection for almost 50 years [overturned], and I think we’re still reacting to what that means across the country,” said Jodi Hicks, the group’s president.

An exit poll commissioned by Capitol Weekly found that in three of the biggest House wins for Democrats — ousting incumbent GOP Reps. Mike Garcia and Michelle Steel, and holding the toss-up Orange County seat left vacant by outgoing Democratic Rep. Katie Porter — abortion was the top issue for voters who sided with the Democratic candidate.

The poll by Paul Mitchell of CA120 found that abortion rights was particularly motivating for certain non-Democrats who ended up backing the Democratic contender. It was the top issue for independents who voted for Democrat Derek Tran over Steel and for 50 percent of Republicans who voted for Democrat George Whitesides over Garcia.

Hicks (no relation to Rusty Hicks of the California Democratic Party) said her organization learned from 2022, when voters overwhelmingly backed a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution but still elected incumbent Republicans in key House seats.”

That should have said, Hicks (no relation to Rusty Hicks of the California Democratic Party but married to pollster Paul Mitchell of Political Data, Inc. and owner of Redistricting Partners, and named the #5 Capitol Power Couple by Capitol Weekly) said her organization learned from 2022, when voters overwhelmingly backed a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution but still elected incumbent Republicans in key House seats.

Perhaps even as interesting is this about Mitchell in Will McCarthy’s Politico article today:

In Sacramento, his data, and his approach, was seen as above reproach. That may not be the case soon.

“I had never done a partisan redistricting,” Mitchell said this week. “Until just now.”

What a cesspool.