Washington state megathread

[SvenssonRS]

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*FACEPALM*

I highly doubt Rossi will run again.

Note, though, that I said the same thing about 2010. But I just can't imagine the guy running against McKenna. There was a lot of speculation that Rossi actually wanted to run for Governor again, but the party establishment was uniting behind McKenna, and that's why he tried running for Senate instead. Or something like that, I don't remember precisely.

If Reichert ever retired for whatever reason, Rossi might make an interesting candidate for the 8th district, I guess. But then there's Reagan Dunn to consider! Oh, the possibilities.

That would be the only time I'd ever remotely consider supporting him again. He just can't be elected statewide, it seems.

Plus, a poll that I don't think was recorded in our database here showed McKenna obliterating one of the Democrats' best candidates, so I think it would be a much wiser decision just to stay out if he actually wants his party to win something again.

The only 2012 Gov poll I know of was McKenna vs. Brown...and she would most definitely not be the Democratic Party's best candidate.

State Senate president? I'd think that would be a pretty damn good candidate, myself, but I don't know much about Washington politics.

[bgwah]

She has poor name recognition (and those who do know her may simply know her as the income tax lady), and she has little going for her geographically. Candidates from the Westside would be favored in both party's primaries, I imagine, but especially so for a Democrat. What would her base be in the primary? Spokane vs. the Puget Sound? lol.

[Alcon]

^^

Also, "I've led the state legislature for several years" is a horrible way to be introduced to the current Washington electorate.

[Alcon]

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(Powell seems to be a secret Democrat or Democratic-leaner at least, but is squeaky-clean of affiliation on paper.)

[bgwah]

http://www.rogergoodmanforcongress.com/



Hopefully he's in the 8th CD come 2012.

[jimrtex]

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(Powell seems to be a secret Democrat or Democratic-leaner at least, but is squeaky-clean of affiliation on paper.)

How common is the term "Banjo Belt?"

[Alcon]

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(Powell seems to be a secret Democrat or Democratic-leaner at least, but is squeaky-clean of affiliation on paper.)

How common is the term "Banjo Belt?"

You've totally lost me.

[jimrtex]

How common is the term "Banjo Belt?"

You've totally lost me.

I was watching the committee discussion of the bill to split legislative districts into two house districts.  The sponsor Rep. Dunshee from LD 44, apparently previously represented LD 39, and was using that as an example of how the redistricting commission usually managed to satisfy the caucuses by generally not pairing incumbents (Dunshee was one of two exceptions in 2001), and gave as an example Rep.Kristiansen who lived south of him.

He made a reference to rural Whatcom County as being the banjo belt.  About 10 minutes later, another representative showed up, and complained about the insult to his constituents.  I think it was Rep.Overstreet.  I thought at first it was a joke, that he acting upset.  But it was apparent that he was demanding an apology for all the musically-inclined hillbillies of Whatcom County.

BTW, the district split bill is going nowhere.  Every representative was already calculating how it might effect him or her (one Seattle representative said that the district line would have to be drawn down an alley as another representative balcony overlooked her back yard).

[bgwah]

I've never heard of the term. Rural Whatcom County is usually just referred to as "the county" (how original!).

[Alcon]

I guess Ferndale is kind of rural white-collar, but the really conservative parts are Dutch Calvinist.  Even if they're farmers, "Banjo Belt" seems like a weird neologism to describe that part of the county.

[Meeker]

I think it's a Deliverance reference.

[jimrtex]

I think it's a Deliverance reference.

Whatcom County is "Banjo Country"

It includes a clip from the movie.

[Alcon]

It's definitely a hick reference, Deliverance or not, which is totally not what I assumed the Dutch Calvinist ilk that make up the non-Ferndale part to be.  Or maybe there's just a lot of unreported forest rape.

Either way, Hans Dunshee is kind of silly.

[Jackson]

Who do you guys think will win the next gubernatorial election?

[Fuzzybigfoot]

How common is the term "Banjo Belt?"

You've totally lost me.

He made a reference to rural Whatcom County as being the banjo belt.  About 10 minutes later, another representative showed up, and complained about the insult to his constituents.  I think it was Rep.Overstreet.  I thought at first it was a joke, that he acting upset.  But it was apparent that he was demanding an apology for all the musically-inclined hillbillies of Whatcom County.

[Alcon]

BREAKING NEWS: WA Census data released

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[RI]

Every county grew except Pacific and Garfield. Not very surprising there. Franklin County saw the highest percentage growth. How much of that was Hispanic growth?

[Alcon]

I've just been idly playing by with the Census race numbers.  Here's a comparison of Seattle's % non-white versus its suburbs:

Bryn Mawr-Skyway 72.9%
Tukwila 62.4%
SeaTac 60.5%
White Center 60.4%
Renton 50.6%
Kent 50.3%
Federal Way 48.4%
East Hill-Meridian 46.6%
Burien 43.0%
Des Moines 42.0%
Bellevue 40.8%
Redmond 39.0%
Fairwood 37.9%
Newcastle 36.9%
Lakeland North 36.0%
Auburn 34.5%
Klahanie 34.4%
Seattle 33.7%
Shoreline 32.1%
Kingsgate 31.7%
Sammamish 28.1%
Kirkland 24.1%
Mercer Island 24.0%
Kenmore 23.8%
Union Hill-Novelty Hill 23.1%
Inglewood-Finn Hill 21.3%
Lake Forest Park 19.2%
Bainbridge Island 11.5%

For areas of 500+:

- Whitest Cliffdel CDP in Yakima County is 103/104 white; Spangle in Spokane County is 97.5%.

- Least white Yakima County Hispanic towns: Mattawa (3.3%), Mabton (7.0%), Wapato (8.0%), Toppenish (8.8%), Granger (9.6%)

- Blackest Easily Bryn Mawr-Skyway area south of Seattle (30.7%); runner-up is Tukwila (17.5%)

- Asianest Larch Way CDP near Lynnwood (33.3%), followed by East Bothell (27.7%), and the city of Bellevue (27.5%).  On the other extreme, Granger's Asian population is 0/3,246.

- Otherest Uh: Spanaway (3.9%), SeaTac (3.7%), Parkland (3.7%) and other declasse suburbs.

- Multiracial Indians, apparently: Elmer City (17.6%), Nisqually-Skokomish Reservation (13.0%), random other reservations.

- Hispanic No real surprise.  Mattawa (95.7%), Mabton (91.9%), Royal City (88.7%), Granger (88.2%), etc.

And, of course, every 10 years, the Census decides to make up weird names for their CDPs and introduce them as geographies.  Welcome some of Washington's newest communities:

Barney's Junction, WA
Bunk Foss, WA
Duluth, WA
Santiago, WA
Swede Heaven, WA
Torboy, WA

Big points if you've heard of even one of those places.

Still don't understand how CDPs work in light of the one-person CDP (Laurier) in Ferry County they made.  It's populated by a white-Asian person we're going to get to know lots of unnecessary information about.  Thanks Census!

[CultureKing]

We got the monies!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/boeingaerospace/2014320058_tanker25.html

So maybe we will be able to afford not completely killing off the state government? Or perhaps try to resurrect it in a few years?

[Alcon]

Every county grew except Pacific and Garfield. Not very surprising there. Franklin County saw the highest percentage growth. How much of that was Hispanic growth?

White +54.7%
Total +58.4%
Hispanic +73.7%

Great web site: http://data.spokesman.com/census/2010/washington

[Alcon]

Playing around in Seattle a bit, some funny confirmations of the obvious:  Minority areas that become remotely trendy/attractive have experienced minority exoduses.

Beacon Hill's white population jumped while its Asian and Black populations cratered...we're talking down over a third in some tracts.

The Columbia City tract's overall population has fallen 3.8%, but its White population is up 47.1%.

In the Central District tracts, the white population is up 46%, and black population is down 40%.  Yes:  Nearly half of the Central District's black population has left in the past 10 years.  The last majority Black tract in the area went from 51%-36% Black to 54%-32% White.

Whether at the expense of Black or Asian numbers, Whites are gaining in every Rainier Valley tract (some of them strongly) unless I missed anything.

Overall, Seattle was;

Hispanic (regardless of race below): +35.7%
Multiracial: +24.3%
Asian: +13.9%
Other race: +10.6%
Overall: +8.0%
White: +7.1%
Black: +1.6%
American Indian/Alaska Native: -15.0%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: -16.2%

[Alcon]

Stats by CD, with the population change needed to meet ideal district size, and then the racial demographics for residents 18+.  Forgive the dumb parenthetical names

WA-1 (Northern Seattle suburbs)
Change needed for ideal: -67,001
White 75.5%
Black 2.5%
Native 0.7%
Asian 12.0%
API 0.4%
Other 0.2%
Hispanic 6.3%
Multiracial 2.5%

WA-2 (North Puget Sound)
Change needed for ideal: -87,587
White 83.6%
Black 1.2%
Native 1.7%
Asian 3.5%
API 0.3%
Other 0.1%
Hispanic 7.4%
Multiracial 2.2%

WA-3 (Southwestern Washington)
Change needed for ideal: -106,894
White 86.0%
Black 1.4%
Native 0.9%
Asian 3.3%
API 0.4%
Other 0.1%
Hispanic 5.7%
Multiracial 2.2%

WA-4 (Central Washington)
Change needed for ideal: -101,955
White 67.0%
Black 0.9%
Native 1.6%
Asian 1.5%
API 0.1%
Other 0.1%
Hispanic 27.4%
Multiracial 1.4%

WA-5 (Far Eastern Washington)
Change needed for ideal: -51,155
White 87.1%
Black 1.3%
Native 2.0%
Asian 2.1%
API 0.3%
Other 0.1%
Hispanic 5.0%
Multiracial 2.1%

WA-6 (Tacoma-Kitsap/Olympic Peninsulas)
Change needed for ideal: -37,116
White 77.2%
Black 5.1%
Native 1.9%
Asian 4.9%
API 0.8%
Other 0.1%
Hispanic 6.5%
Multiracial 3.4%

WA-7 (Seattle area)
Change needed for ideal: -31,771
White 66.8%
Black 7.3%
Native 0.7%
Asian 14.3%
API 0.4%
Other 0.2%
Hispanic 6.9%
Multiracial 3.3%

WA-8 (Seattle exurbs)
Change needed for ideal: -138,300
White 74.2%
Black 2.8%
Native 0.7%
Asian 13.5%
API 0.4%
Other 0.2%
Hispanic 5.9%
Multiracial 2.4%

WA-9 (Weird Sprawl-Land/Olympia)
Change needed for ideal: -50,675
White 67.5%
Black 7.1%
Native 1.1%
Asian 9.6%
API 1.6%
Other 0.2%
Hispanic 9.7%
Multiracial 3.3%

[Alcon]

Oh, also:  The Census now has information (race and housing status so far) by precinct.  I think this might make for some fun summer projects if I ever can get MapWindow GIS to run on a 64-bit install of Windows 7.

[Meeker]

WA-05's Hispanic population is really that low?

[Bacon King]

Still don't understand how CDPs work in light of the one-person CDP (Laurier) in Ferry County they made.  It's populated by a white-Asian person we're going to get to know lots of unnecessary information about.  Thanks Census!

I'm laughing out loud at this.

Also, on the topic of weird CDP names, nothing has amused me more than Airport Road Addition, Texas.