Rep. Jim McCune was surprised to see that instead of his relatively safe seat in the rural-to-suburban 2nd district, the bipartisan maps put his Graham home in the ultra-competitive suburban-to-urban 28th district.
"I don’t know why they did that. I’m very popular in my district," McCune said.
People in Lakewood, University Place and west Tacoma -- which form the core of the 28th -- likely don't know much about McCune.
"My name ID would be squat in that area," said McCune, a conservative Republican. "It would be awful hard to beat somebody in that district."
McCune would likely have to run against Rep. Troy Kelley of Tacoma or Rep. Tami Green of Lakewood, both Democrats. Rather than face that prospect, he said he might run for a seat on the Pierce County Council. He said his councilman, Roger Bush, is leaving because of term limits.
Another candidate is waiting in the wings to run for McCune's seat.
The new maps bump Republican Rep. Gary Alexander of Thurston County into the 2nd district.
Alexander accepted the change, although he said he will miss the friends he met in the 20th district of Thurston and Lewis counties, including while working on flood relief.
Unlike McCune, Alexander said he was told to expect the change.
GOP Redistricting Commissioner Tom Huff called him. "Tom said, 'Gary, I know this is not your desire but it’ll make it much easier for us to work with the Democrats in terms of some of the other districts,'" Alexander said.
"I'm a team player. I want to see that happen, so I'll move to the 2nd and I'll work hard to try to campaign over there."
One other domino falls as part of the shift. Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, would move from the 18th district and have the chance to run for Alexander's old seat. That would leave an open House seat in southwest Washington.
Two Democrats are being displaced under the proposed maps, Sen. Margarita Prentice of Renton and Rep. Ruth Kagi of Lake Forest Park.
But others who were threatened, including Kelley and Sen. Tracey Eide of Redondo, will stay in their current districts.
