Every 10 years, after the census required by the U.S. Constitution has been successfully completed, each state begins the process of redistricting, or drawing new boundaries for its congressional districts. Here in Washington, our redistricting process is overseen by a five-member commission with four voting members (two from each major party) and one nonvoting chair, who helps facilitate and guide the commission’s work. The commission has the unenviable task of not only drawing up new congressional districts for the next decade, but legislative districts as well.
Our state’s Constitution gives the Redistricting Commission (which must be reconstituted by the Legislature every decade) until the end of each year ending in one to come up with new maps that at least three of the commissioners can agree on.
If the commission cannot agree on new maps by New Year’s Day of the following year, the task then falls to the state Supreme Court, though in practice this has never happened.
The 2011 Redistricting Commission, comprised of Slade Gorton, Tim Ceis, Tom Huff, and Dean Foster, had attempted to meet an earlier self-imposed deadline of Nov. 1 in the hope of being able to finish the majority of their work well in advance of the holiday season, but they missed it. However, it appears they are on track to be done by the deadline that really matters — Jan. 1, 2012.
To make the task of drawing new lines easier, the commissioners decided to split up the work and tackle it in bipartisan teams of two. The commissioners first focused on legislative districts in western Washington. Gorton and Ceis, who represent the Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats, respectively, took on the Puget Sound region, while Foster and Huff, who represent the House Democrats and House Republicans, took on southwest Washington and the Olympic Peninsula. Each team presented their proposal on Dec. 16.
Ceis and Gorton then turned their attention to putting together new congressional districts, while Huff and Foster worked on drawing up new legislative districts for eastern Washington. On Dec. 28, each of the teams again publicly presented a proposal.
The congressional district map created by Gorton and Ceis is expected to become the final map, though Huff and Foster have yet to sign off on it. It is very different from Washington’s current map, in part because Washington gained a new congressional district – the 10th – as a result of the 2010 Census. Under the new map, there appear to be two safe Democratic districts, two safe Republican districts, three districts that lean Democratic, two districts that lean Republican, and one that is evenly divided.
The two safe Democratic districts are both in King County. The new 7th (Jim McDermott’s district) remains centered on Seattle, but loses the Rainier Valley and nearby neighborhoods to the new 9th, while picking up Edmonds and Woodway to the north and Burien and Normandy Park to the south. The new 9th (Adam Smith’s district) will stretch from northern Tacoma all the way up to Bellevue and Mercer Island, encompassing Tukwila and Renton. Meanwhile, the northern Eastside (Redmond, Kirkland) will become part of the new 1st, a strangely shaped district that extends to the Canadian border but doesn’t touch the coast until just north of Bellingham. This is the district that either party could win.
Conversely, the new 2nd (Rick Larsen’s district) does not reach very far inland. Already, it’s being nicknamed “the saltwater district” because it spans coastal Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom counties along with Island County and San Juan County.
The new 8th and the 3rd now cross the Cascade Mountains. In terms of population, the 8th remains anchored by eastern King County, but it now also includes Kittitas and Chelan counties. The 3rd is still a southwest Washington district (home to Grays Harbor, Longview, and Vancouver) but it now includes all of Skamania County.
The 4th and the 5th remain safe Republican districts, consisting of most of central and eastern Washington, respectively. The 6th is also largely unchanged, and remains the Olympic Peninsula’s district, currently represented by Norm Dicks. Finally, the new 10th is centered on Olympia, and includes most of south Puget Sound.
If Democrats do well in next year’s presidential election, they may control as many as seven out of the 10 seats. And if Republicans do well, they may control as many of five out of 10. Incumbents are expected to be running in eight of the 10 districts, with the open seats being in the 1st and the 10th.
If you’d like to see what congressional and legislative districts you’ve been drawn into, visit www.redistricting.wa.gov/ to view and download the new maps.
Andrew Villeneuve, a 2005 Redmond High graduate, is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a Redmond-based grassroots organization. Villeneuve can be reached at andrew@nwprogressive.org.
