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Of the four draft maps revealed Tuesday by the four voting members of the Washington State Redistricting Commission, three of them include a minority-dominated congressional district in south Seattle and south King County – stretching as far south as Tacoma in one proposal.
The plans drew immediate praise from activists from the black and immigrant communities.
“What you are doing here today is providing hope for people who have been left out – to people who have not had the opportunity to participate in the government of this state,” said Wallace Webster, a black man who told the commission he has lived in the state for 49 years. “Please let the final map reflect what we have heard here today.’’
Thanks to strong population growth in the past decade, Washington will have a 10th District for next year’s elections – meaning an extra seat in the U.S. House, where five of nine Washington members are Democrats.
Three of the four maps place that new district in the Tacoma-Olympia area – with the fourth map putting it along the Canadian border from Bellingham to Okanogan and Chelan.
In Democrats’ plans, their party might be favored in as many as six of 10 districts, including the new 10th. Republicans could be poised to win five seats under GOP plans.
All versions would likely leave Republican Reps. Dave Reichert of Auburn and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Camas in safer districts – in terms of winning re-election.
The proposals are open for public comment for a month, and the commissioners plan to merge their work into a single plan agreeable to at least three of four members by early November.
Although the Legislature draws the lines in most states, a constitutional amendment in Washington has given the job of redistricting to two Democrats and two Republicans appointed by lawmakers. The work was taken away from lawmakers after the traditional approach landed in court in the early 1980s.
The Legislature still gets the last word in January, but it is allowed to make only minor changes to whatever is agreed to by a commission supermajority.
Of the four, only House Democrats’ representative, Dean Foster of Olympia, did not propose a majority-minority congressional district.
The two Republicans and one Democrat who did call for such districts said they would better ensure minorities would be represented. Foster said he drew districts so that two had large minority populations of more than 42 percent, rather than one that topped 50 percent.
A majority-minority district would be a gamble for Democrats, who tend to do better winning the votes of racial minorities. Republicans stand to gain in other districts by shifting minorities into a single, solidly Democratic district.
Marianne Lincoln, a Bethel School Board member who said she was speaking only for herself, told the board there is a danger of diluting liberal or progressive voters’ clout. She warned minorities could end up shooting themselves in the foot.
Webster, a 49-year resident of the state, took note of that remark and said because of blacks’ lack of representation, “We have not had a foot to shoot, in our time here.’’
The new maps have big implications for both legislative and congressional politics in South Sound:
• Democratic commissioner Foster’s congressional plan splits Thurston County horizontally – putting all of Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater in the new 10th, which also includes the entire Olympia Peninsula and Washington ocean coast. This configuration might help Foster’s bridge-playing partner Denny Heck, a Democrat who would like to run in the 10th.
Foster also splits the southern areas of Thurston – including Yelm, Rainier, Tenino and Bucoda – into the 3rd District. His version of the 3rd also takes in Lewis, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Skamania and Clark counties.
Foster shifts U.S. Rep. Adam Smith’s 9th District northward, running it from northeast Tacoma to Tukwila, Renton and Bellevue. And he concentrates U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks’ 6th District in Tacoma, cutting it loose from the Olympic Peninsula except for Port Townsend; Foster also has the 6th covering Kitsap County and extending to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Lakewood and Fircrest.
• Gig Harbor Republican Tom Huff’s congressional plan splits Thurston County into three districts, giving Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater to Dicks’ district along with the Olympic Peninsula. He also runs Smith’s 9th District eastward to Eatonville, south to Tenino and Bucoda and north only as far as the King-Pierce line.
• Republican Slade Gorton’s congressional plan runs the new 10th District along the Canadian border from Puget Sound to Okanogan. He brings Smith’s 9th District farther south to include all of Thurston County and portions of Pierce County along Interstate 5 up to Federal Way. Gorton also puts southeast Thurston County in the 3rd District and keeps Mason County and Grays Harbor in the 6th District along with a sliver of Tacoma.
• Democrat Tim Ceis’ congressional plan also splits Thurston County horizontally. Ceis puts the north county’s urban area – along with Shelton, DuPont, Lakewood, University Place, Fircrest, Puyallup, Sumner and Algona – in the new 10th District. He puts the rural south Thurston County areas of Yelm, Rainier, Tenino and Rochester in the 3rd, while peeling Pacific County off the 3rd to put with a new 6th District that spans the entire ocean coast.
Heck, an announced Democratic candidate for whatever district represents the Olympia area, said in a statement that he didn’t have a comment on the proposals unveiled Tuesday. He noted that the last time the state drew maps to add a district – in 1991 – the final version was much different than the preliminary maps.
Casey Bowman, a spokesman for Herrera Beutler, said she would have no comment on the maps and that she will “be happy to represent the district whatever its boundaries end up” being.
The commission’s maps also must redraw the state’s 49 legislative districts. The four draft maps show many lawmakers squeezed out of their existing districts, including Democratic Rep. Troy Kelley of Tacoma, who would move from the 28th to the neighboring 27th under Republican plans.
Ceis’ proposal would also push Rep. Jim McCune, a Graham Republican, out of the 2nd and into the 31st. Similarly, Ceis would draw Republican Sen. Dan Swecker of Rochester out of the 20th District and into the 35th, where maverick Democratic Sen. Tim Sheldon is the incumbent.
Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688 bshannon@theolympian.com www.theolympian.com/politicsblog
Jordan Schrader: 360-786-1826 jordan.schrader@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/politics
UPDATED to clarify McCune's district would shift to the 31st district.
