Whatcom County, WA Redistricting and Political Geography

[Fuzzybigfoot]

So it looks like imgur ate all of my images while I was away.  Sad.

Well here is the official district map that was approved a few days ago:

https://wa-whatcomcounty.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/17269

Should be 4-1 Democrats most of the time, but the coastal and mountain districts have been drawn to include enough GOP farmland area that they might be competitive in a good GOP year.

I don't really like the fact that the farmland district goes all the way to the city.  Pretty sure my old apartment is in it too, though the map isn't detailed enough for me to tell for sure.  

Overall they did a decent job.

Myself and others made a point to complain about Cortata being placed into the Lynden districts at the public hearing, albeit to no avail.  Although Bellingham is a little to big to fit into exactly 2 whole districts, I would have likely sacrificed the Silver Beach area of Bellingham to the Mountain district instead, as to make it slightly less Republican.  This is because under the new plan, Republican endorsed county council candidate Kathy Kershner lost her countywide election by 800 votes last year, but carried 3 out of Whatcom County's 5 districts (winning the Mountian district by 8%, the coastal by about 10%, and the Lynden district by at least 40%).  So despite the fact that Republicans are complaining, the redistricting actually turned out to give them an unfair advantage due to the way Bellingham's Northern district was drawn.

[Fuzzybigfoot]

So it looks like imgur ate all of my images while I was away.  Sad.

Well here is the official district map that was approved a few days ago:

https://wa-whatcomcounty.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/17269

Should be 4-1 Democrats most of the time, but the coastal and mountain districts have been drawn to include enough GOP farmland area that they might be competitive in a good GOP year.

I don't really like the fact that the farmland district goes all the way to the city.  Pretty sure my old apartment is in it too, though the map isn't detailed enough for me to tell for sure.  

Overall they did a decent job.

Myself and others made a point to complain about Cortata being placed into the Lynden districts at the public hearing, albeit to no avail.  Although Bellingham is a little to big to fit into exactly 2 whole districts, I would have likely sacrificed the Silver Beach area of Bellingham to the Mountain district instead, as to make it slightly less Republican.  This is because under the new plan, Republican endorsed county council candidate Kathy Kershner lost her countywide election by 800 votes last year, but carried 3 out of Whatcom County's 5 districts (winning the Mountian district by 8%, the coastal by about 10%, and the Lynden district by at least 40%).  So despite the fact that Republicans are complaining, the redistricting actually turned out to give them an unfair advantage due to the way Bellingham's Northern district was drawn.

Hey, good to hear from someone following this on the ground.  And yeah, the Republicans could definitely win a majority with this map under the right circumstances.  Including Cordata in the Lynden district was pretty nonsensical imo.  The images aren't showing up here anymore (at least for me) but I demonstrated that it's very easy to draw a more Democratic-friendly map that does a better job of preserving natural communities.  That said it's also easier to draw a worse map for the Democrats.  Overall I can totally understand why you're unsatisfied with the outcome.

Luckily we still elect 2 members to our council via at-large elections, so the conservatives would have to sweep all three non-Bellingham districts and win one at-large to get a majority.  Personally I think that's a bit unlikely, since our county leans solidly Democratic.  But as you said, under the right circumstances....

[Fuzzybigfoot]

Btw that's actually the wrong map.  The Eastern district doesn't include Sumas or Everson or Nooksack, thankfully.

[Fuzzybigfoot]

Btw that's actually the wrong map.  The Eastern district doesn't include Sumas or Everson or Nooksack, thankfully.

Do you have a link to the correct map?  Someone posted it on my Facebook feed the other day but I couldn't find it.

Here, this should work:

http://nwcitizen.com/entry?category=20