California faces real problems — a housing crisis, natural disasters and a business climate that drives employers away. So why spend millions of taxpayer dollars upending the voter-approved redistricting system? On a political gamble, no less?

Proposition 50 would undo the work of the Citizens Redistricting Commission, replacing fair, independent maps with gerrymandered districts designed to knock out Republican representatives in the Valley and beyond.

Given how often California’s “well-intentioned” policies backfire, it’s baffling that anyone would roll the dice on how these new congressional lines might play out. While supporters note Prop. 50 would only apply through 2030, it’s Central Valley voters who risk losing their already-limited influence to urban power centers. And once those districts change, who’s to say we’ll ever get them back?

Prop. 50 represents the same revenge politics its supporters decry in Washington. We can’t control what happens in Texas, but we can reject partisan map-drawing here. Rep. Kevin Kiley has proposed a national ban on mid-decade redistricting — a far better use of energy than pouring $200 million into this fight.

The Central Valley stands to be collateral damage in California’s redistricting war. The maps could mix Silicon Valley tech hubs with struggling farm towns — whose interests will win?

California voters already chose fairness once. Let’s not trade it away. Vote no on Prop. 50.