Looking at the Seattle GOP's rapid decline

[bgwah]

This thread is meant to look at the fairly rapid death of the Seattle Republicans in the 1970s. I look at the city's partisan election history to give us an idea of how quickly it occurred.

7th congressional district
-Last R elected during a 1977 special election. All D since 1978.

43rd legislative district, located within King/Seattle since 1891. It has been based in Capitol Hill since at least 1933.
-Never elected a Democrat until Jim McDermott in 1970. Democrats won all 3 seats in 1976. All D since 1976. Voted 90% Obama in 2008 (his best in the state).

37th legislative district, Seattle since 1933, when it roughly included First Hill and the Central District. Gradually expanded to include most of those areas + much of SE Seattle.
-Last R elected in 1970. All D since 1972.

36th legislative district, Seattle since 1933, when it was a Queen Anne based district. Gradually expanded to include much of NW Seattle (Ballard, etc.)
-All R from 1944 until first D elected in 1972, to last R elected in 1980. All D since 1982.

46th legislative district, King since 1903, based in NE Seattle since at least 1933.
-All R from 1944 through 1978.
-All D since 1982.

34th legislative district, based in SW Seattle (West Seattle) since 1933. Gradually expanded to include some suburbs to the south of the city, as well as Vashon Island.
-All D since 1986.

Districts no longer in Seattle:

44th legislative district , NW Seattle starting in 1933. Included portions of King/Snohomish suburbs. No longer contained any Seattle by 1992.
-Last R elected in 1984. All  D in 1986, lasted until it no longer contained any Seattle.

32nd legislative district, Seattle starting  at least 1933. Based in Wallingford/Fremont, including Ballard, Greenlake and/or U-District at times. Moved to NW-most Seattle in 1990s, and then completely to being a Shoreline based district (No more Seattle) in 2000s. Shoreline is immediately north of Seattle.
-Last R elected in 1968. All D since 1970. (including modern Shoreline district).

35th legislative district: Seattle since at least 1933. Downtown (sometimes part of Lower Queen Anne) until 1965. Moved to SE suburbs in 1965, but including large portion of SE Seattle in 1970s. Moved completely out of Seattle in 1980s.
-Last R elected in 1964. All D starting in 1966 until removed from Seattle in 1982.

33rd legislative district. King since statehood. SE Seattle from 1933 through 1972.
-Last R elected in 1930. All D from 1932 until removed from Seattle in 1970s.


Obviously, changing boundaries plays a role, so I tried to include some basic descriptions of their changes over time. SE Seattle has been D since the 1930s, though it has been in three different districts (33, 35, and now 37) in that time. It evolved from a working class white area to a predominantly minority area today. Otherwise, Republicans managed to hold on in most of Seattle until the Democrats won just about everything from 1970-1982. The Republicans managed to hold on through 1984 in a couple districts that included suburbs. But, as you can see, they never recovered--The Democrats have won every single race since the mid-80s.. I think it’s interesting to see how rapidly the city’s politics realigned like that, especially since many of these areas have maintained roughly the same racial composition. Why did it happen? The most obvious explanation would be the white family flight the city experienced during that time. I threw “family” in there, since Seattle has maintained one of the largest inner city white populations in the country (2nd whitest IIRC, beaten only by Portland in terms of major cities). But white families with children—people whom I imagine would have been more Republican—left the city during that period. Busing and school integration peaked in the 1970s. Seattle’s population saw declines in both the 1970 and 1980 censuses. The Seattle school district’s enrollment fell from about 100,000 to 40,000 from 1960 through the 1990s, and became about 60% minority (despite the city being around 70% white). The two high schools that closed in 1981 due to falling enrollment were in Queen Anne and Wallingford--areas that are still quite white and haven't faced total abandonment, but that suffer from a rather severe lack of children. Seattle is, IIRC, the most childless major city in the country to this day, beating even San Francisco.

I may add the Eastside suburbs to this, as decades of complete R domination ended rather quickly in the past decade.

[Torie]

That doesn't explain why wealthy suburbs like Mercer Island and Bellevue have trended Dem which still have lots of Anglo kids.

[bgwah]

That doesn't explain why wealthy suburbs like Mercer Island and Bellevue have trended Dem which still have lots of Anglo kids.

Hey now... the last sentence in my post says I may add the Eastside suburbs eventually! But, this happened in the 00s, not back in the 70s like Seattle... The Republicans won almost every single seat on the Eastside until 2002 or so, with one or two exceptions. My original post aimed to explain the GOP's 1970s downfall in Seattle, not the more recent Eastside decline. I also want to say the Eastside GOP's decline has been more gradual---but that may only be because I have more information. And of course, if we're using elected officials as a measure, Reichert is still around, and they won back a couple legislative seats last year, so the Eastside GOP certainly isn't dead like Seattle's...