A number of media outlets are reporting this week an alarmingly low number of applications from people of color for the new Citizens Redistricting Commission, which will draw new legislative and Board of Equalization districts in California.

This news coverage follows months of outreach by advocacy organizations to highlight the importance of increasing applications from people of color for the Commission.

"California redistricting commission may have no people of color" warned an op-ed by Pete Carrillo of Silicon Valley Advisors and Orson Aguilar of the Greenlining Institute published Jan. 16 in the San Jose Mercury News.

An Associated Press article on Jan. 26 highlighted the low numbers:

* So far, fewer than a quarter of the applications ... are from minority candidates in a state where non-Hispanic whites make up less than half the population.
* "Hispanics make up fewer than 9 percent of the applicants, although they count for almost 37 percent of the state's population."
* "Barely over 4 percent of the applicants are Asians, who make up more than 12 percent of the state's population ..."
* "The proportion of tentatively eligible black applicants, about 7 percent, is roughly on par with that group's 6 percent share of the population ..."