US House Redistricting: Washington

[Seattle]

First post!!

I've been playing with Dave's Redistricting since November or so.... and while pretty much all of my cuts have been through Columbia River counties.... what if the second were to take Okanogan and Chelan counties. The 2nd could hold onto Skykomish in N. King county and have the State route 2 "connection" for Chelan and N. Cascades for Okanogan counties.

I know this would make the district considerably more Republican and that endangering incumbents is certainly looked down upon by WA's redistricting commission, however it would be pretty clean cut.

The third would still have to creep up into Yakima county, but a split of the city and its direct suburbs would be spared. Are 2 Cascade crossing too much.... Im going to guess so, but it's certainly another way of looking at it.

[Seattle]

That is true, however, it is quite busy during the late spring/summer when it is open. I just made up the districts for it (at least partly) and 3rd just creeps up into the Yakima Indian Reservation and into Toppenish.

[Seattle]

Welcome aboard!    I think you may currently be our only active member from Seattle.

Thank you! Lol, I would have thought there would be a few people from Seattle on here.

[Seattle]

I can't wait to see what maps they eventually come out with! While I'd prefer a true nonpartisan commission, where they don't care where the incumbent lives or what the political leanings of the district they create are.... at least we don't have the gerrymander crazy redistricting committees of Illinois or Texas.

[Seattle]

Interesting..... What if you traded Everett back into the 2nd, and let the 1st eat up all Monroe/US-2 territory + Skykomish?

Why Would Heck like the third's new shape?

[Seattle]

Taking in Everett is the only way he can really keep his seat in pro-republican years. I'd always imagined Heck lived in the Vancouver area, lol.

Any indication on what will happen with the 8th?

[Seattle]

So.... I haven't really figured out how to get pictures on here, but an interesting incumbent protection map would be to have Reichert take in Eastern Snohomish, King, and Pierce, creating an exurban Seattle district. Then, you can put Everett/Lake Stevens into the 2nd, while the first loses the Key Peninsula and takes Bellevue/Redmond north of I-90. The 7th stays about the same, but the northern border is Seattle's border and the southern strechs into White Center/Skyway/Tukwila. The ninth takes in Mercer Island/South Bellevue/Renton and then goes about all the way down into Puyallup. I split Auburn the same way it was last time because I really wasn't sure were Reichert lives. Tacoma/Parkland/N. Lakewood+Key Peninsula+Shelton make a nice compact 6th. The new 10th takes pretty much the Olympic Peninsula, the Pacific counties, Wahkiakum, Lewis, Thurston, and McChord-Lewis/Dupont in Pierce + Castle Rock in Cowlitz. This creats a pretty even district, but it voted for Murray 51%. The third keeps Longview, vancouver, and strechs up evenly into Yakima county. The fourth takes most of Walla Walla county and the fifth is pretty much the same.

1st: 58.1% - 41.9%
2nd: 51.2% - 48.8%
3rd: 45.6% - 54.4% This is probably out of reach of the Dems now
4th: 34.9% - 65.1%
5th: 41.6% - 58.4%
6th: 53.4% - 46.6%
7th: 81.5% - 18.5%
8th: 45.6% - 54.4% Lol, didnt realize it voted exactly the same percentage as the third
9th: 54.7% - 45.3%
10th: 51.0% - 49.0%

[Seattle]

Would Bellevue really care if it is split from the 8th to the 1st? You'd just be logically extending the 1st further down after Kirkland.

[Seattle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhalem,_Washington

route 20 is only open in the summer....

While true, the communities it connects are basically ski/summer homes of the Seattle wealthy. They are forced to take US-2 in the winter and drive up north, but in the summer/fall, N. Cascades is way faster. So... I guess in that sense they are "communities of interest", but I doubt that makes up for 2 county splits.

The average length its open is April 20-Nov 26

[Seattle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhalem,_Washington

route 20 is only open in the summer....

While true, the communities it connects are basically ski/summer homes of the Seattle wealthy. They are forced to take US-2 in the winter and drive up north, but in the summer/fall, N. Cascades is way faster. So... I guess in that sense they are "communities of interest", but I doubt that makes up for 2 county splits.

The average length its open is April 20-Nov 26

If they're just summer/ski homes of people who normally live in Seattle, then surely those folks would be registered in the Seattle area, too? Seems like kind of a flimsy reason to put what would be some genuine Eastern Washingtonians in a Western district.

I agree, it is a flimsy reason and not very likely. Especially if you are only going to take the Democrat part of the counties, causing county splits.

[Seattle]

I doubt that they're going to make the 8th more democrat - if anything, they'll try to take Bellevue out, shoring up the 9th or putting it in the 1st. and there probably wouldn't be a weird split in Island county.

What are the murray/rossi percentages for the 6th, 2nd, and 8th?

[Seattle]

Those stupid Cascades .

I'm not totally opposed to how you drew the new 8th, while it is certainly way more Republican and it crosses over, it's still competitive, however, two crossings + a three way split of Yakima County is too much.... It was better when it was just between the third and eighth.

[Seattle]

If Meeker's map is even close to correct, though, I would definitely like to see non-partisan redistricting instead of this awful "bipartisan" garbage.

I agree, if they come up with some gross gerrymander, I'd like that we move onto an Iowa type redistricting commision. Enough of Slade Gorton and his sleeziness.

[Seattle]

It would, but not as heavily Rossi if it were not majority-minority. I think it is an interesting idea, but can it be done without messing up surrounding districts too much?

[Seattle]

I was playing around and you can actually do 10 all D districts, if you start each district in Seattle, with even portions. The lowest are two 50.5% Murray districts, with a little more tweaking in Seattle I can probably get both to 51% without and others dropping below that. The higest is 55%, but with tweaking that would probably drop to 53.5-54% Murray.

It's a truely disgusting abomination.....

[Seattle]

I just threw up... okay not literally, but these are disgusting. I could and have drawn maps considerably better than those. Now time to look at them in more detail.

[Seattle]

I dislike Hoff's the most. Followed by Gorton's followed by Ceis's, followed by Foster's. I think Foster's is a bit better than Ceis's.

Now saying that..... I hate them all.

I even sent a long message to Gorton pointing out every bit of gerrymandering.... but really used it to attack all the maps. I am extremely dissapointed and I'd like for some steps to be taken so that in the next redistricting commission is conducted by a non-partisan group that takes no account into where incumbents live and that there primary concern is keeping communities of interest together, followed by district competitiveness.

[Seattle]

Is there any indication when they will have the CD lines ready?

[Seattle]

They met again today and say they're close. Meeting scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled; next meeting on Tuesday. I don't expect them to have anything then but I also wouldn't be surprised.

If they split Seattle, I'm going to be royally pissed. What are the chances of that 'minority majority' district?

[Seattle]

Just a random question.... but what was the point of extending the first into Seattle and 7th up into Lake Forest Park in the 2000 redistricting?

[Seattle]

Thanks, okay, that makes sense... except the 7th extends up into Lake Forest Park. For the longest time, I assumed McDermott lived there, but apparently he lives in South Seattle, so that mystery remains.

[Seattle]

This is a furking disaster! I'm furious..... Splitting Seattle.... what is the second... it's disgusting, or for that matter the 8th. I need to go throttle something

At least the 3rd looks 'nice'.

Oh, and Tacoma is split a nice even three ways, lovely.

[Seattle]

As I said in the other thread, the 1st and 2nd districts are absolutely disgusting. Is the 1st even contiguous at Medina?

It is, but barely.

[Seattle]

I like how they took the absolute necessary minimum effort to keep the 1st road-contiguous, in about three places.

I don't even think it is. Highway 9 goes through Sedro Wooley, which is now in the second district.

[Seattle]

The new WA-10 is around 52.6-52.8 Murry, that's a pretty solid D seat.