In maps presented to the Citizens Redistricting Commission today, line-drawers abandoned a proposed Senate district presented last week that included Monterey, San Luis and Santa Barbara counties and a small slice of western Ventura County. As discussed in my previous post, such a district would have been incompatible with Senate districts proposed for Southern California and left a black hole of between 600,000 and 700,000 people in Ventura County unassigned.

The new Senate district proposal at least indirectly suggests "nesting," or combining, the two proposed Assembly districts that take in most of Ventura County. Thus, it would take in southern coastal Santa Barbara County (including the city of Santa Barbara, and all of Ventura County except for most of the city of Thousand Oaks and the unincorporated areas to its south and west, including Bell Canyon, Casa Conejo and Lake Sherwood.

The map does not exactly show most of the Ventura County portion, but it does show a Santa Barbara-Ventura-half of Oxnard district that is 450,000 people short of a Senate district -- or, essentially the number of people in the other suggested Assembly district.

Somehow, it will all become clear by Friday, when the commission officially releases its draft maps.