US House Redistricting: Washington

[Meeker]

Found these nuggets in an article from The Olympian:

Based on the 2010 election results, all state House Democrats now in office would have been elected that year under the new legislative boundaries, according to Foster. Plus, former Rep. Dawn Morrell of Puyallup would have won re-election, Foster said.

Gorton said that by the GOP’s definition of competitive or swing districts, 16 legislative districts are in that class – using a complicated formula based on 10 previous races in 2008 and 2010 where the average party split was between 46 percent and 54 percent.

Gorton said that by Democrats’ measure, 15 are swing. Gorton did not identify which ones meet the test.

...

Democrats now control the congressional delegation by a 5 to 4 margin, the state House by 56 to 42, and the state Senate by 27 to 22. Gorton said the final maps awaiting approval leave that pretty much in place.

[bgwah]

Sounds very optimistic. I guess we'll see...

They've already pushed their next meeting back to 9. I won't be surprised if they postpone in several more times until just before midnight.

[Meeker]

In 1991 they didn't vote until 11:15, so they're still ahead of schedule!

[bgwah]

Both maps have been approved unanimously.

Re: 15th LD, looks like the Hispanic part of Yakima City has been included, but not White Swan, Wapato, etc. They would have been difficult to include, though, as you would have to have a Clark-to-Columbia district or something like that as a result.

[bgwah]

Wow. I am so relieved that Slade Gorton's plan to re-number the districts failed.

[Vasall des Midas]

Does it even matter with the new district?

Why wouldn't it?

We are talking of the new 8th, right?

No, Burner is in the 1st now.

Okay, that explains my confusion.

[krazen1211]

Is there a Spokane Democratic legislative district?

[Meeker]

Is there a Spokane Democratic legislative district?

Yes, the 3rd LD which is the urban core of the city. The Senate Majority Leader is actually from there.

Democrats have also held the Senate seat and both House seats in the 6th LD for varying amounts of time since 2006 but currently hold no seats there.

[So the Heroes Fall]

Where is the 6th?

[Meeker]

Kind of tough to describe it; includes part of the City of Spokane itself plus some surrounding area.

See here: http://redistricting.wa.gov/assets/maps/FINAL_010112_Plans/Legislative/final_legislative_plan_statewide.pdf

And here:
http://redistricting.wa.gov/assets/maps/FINAL_010112_Plans/Legislative/LD_Draft_Handout_Insets.pdf

[bgwah]

Here's a fun article:
http://olywa.blogspot.com/2011/12/foster-vs-gorton-reliving-60s-with.html

(Democratic senate leader Bob) Greive consigned the House bill to committee. The sorcerer had a gifted apprentice of his own. Young Dean Foster ran the numbers, tweaked the majority leader’s plan and gave him something to shop around on the House floor. (Slade) Gorton warned that two could play that game.

A lot of people, including some members of his own party, were wary of Slade “because he could just outsmart anybody,” Don Eldridge said. But  Greive  had  way  more  detractors  and  clearly  had  met  his  match  in Gorton. “I tell you, the two of them, that was a combination,” the GOP caucus chairman said. “I’d liked to have been a little mouse in the corner at some of those sessions.” 18  Pritchard said Greive was “Machiavelli on redistricting. He was too smart for everybody . . . until he ran into Gorton,” who “knew every jot, diddle, corner — whatever it was.

Slade Gorton: Fooling Democrats for half a century.

[realisticidealist]

Spokane wasn't carved up nearly as badly as I feared it might be.

[bgwah]

Does anyone have .drf files for the new legislative districts? Or a voting breakdown for them?

I've checked a few swing districts. The the biggest change I've found is the 42nd, which went from 51.4% Rossi to 53.2% Rossi. The 6th, 35th, and 45th districts are about the same.

Checking some of the incumbentmander Puget Sound districts is a real headache, though.

[jimrtex]

I thought it would be amusing to review of our early thoughts on a 10 district division. This thread is from early 2008.

So other than putting Kitsap rather than Thurston with the Pacific Coast they basically got it right.  I still think that it makes more sense to go from Bremerton across Puget Sound than crossing Hood Canal.  This would also have given Olympia its own congressional district.

[bgwah]

I thought it would be amusing to review of our early thoughts on a 10 district division. This thread is from early 2008.

So other than putting Kitsap rather than Thurston with the Pacific Coast they basically got it right.  I still think that it makes more sense to go from Bremerton across Puget Sound than crossing Hood Canal.  This would also have given Olympia its own congressional district.

Yeah, I would prefer Bremerton/Kitsap with Tacoma and did so in some of my original proposals. But that would have changed the incumbent's district too much, I guess.

[bgwah]

Because I can't sleep and I'm bored, I've decided to redistrict King County's council districts. Having only 9 districts for close to two million people annoys me, so I did 19 seats (101,645 people per district).

There isn't a single unnecessary city split. The only two cities that are split (Seattle and Bellevue) have more than 101,645 people and have to be split no matter what.



Turned out surprisingly well.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

DKE finally figured out the numbers for the new districts:

WA-01 - 56-42 Obama
WA-02 - 60-38 Obama
WA-03 - 51-47 Obama
WA-04 - 59-39 McCain
WA-05 - 51-46 McCain
WA-06 - 57-41 Obama
WA-07 - 80-18 Obama
WA-08 - 51-47 Obama
WA-09 - 69-30 Obama
WA-10 - 57-41 Obama

WA-01 is a little more Dem than I expected, and WA-03 didn't shift as much as I thought.