Describe your state legislative district/districts

[publicunofficial]

My legislative district is LD-24. containing all of Clallam and Jefferson counties with the northern half of Grays Harbor county. The district contains almost all of Olympic National Park, which takes up most of the inland portion of the district.  The largest cities are Port Angeles, Port Townsend, and Hoquiam. However the area around Hoquiam has become pretty stagnant growth wise, and I expect the city of Sequim to take the #3 spot next census. Highway 101 runs along the coast around the park, passing through or near all of the major cities in the region.

Economically the area has historically thrived on the timber industry and major shipping ports in Port Angeles and Grays Harbor, and large paper mills in Port Angeles and Port Townsend. However the decline in the resource economy since the 1980's has hurt the area pretty badly. Port Angeles, in recent years, has attempted to move away from it's logging town past and tried to appeal more to outdoorsy tourists and it's worked pretty well (The cities whopping 6 pot shops also helps). The Hoquiam/Aberdeen area has been less successful in this regard, which is related to it's heavy swing towards Trump this November.

Port Townsend, home a major military base during World War 1, has less of a focus on timber since nearly all of their forest area is national park land. Instead, since the base closed down to become a state park, the city has reinvented itself as an artist's community. Artists, performers, and retired Seattle-ites are drawn by the city's Victorian-era downtown, and as such Jefferson County is heavily heavily D-leaning.

The city of Sequim, where I went to high school, is a historically agricultural community that's quickly eroding into strip malls and planned communities as property developers are given pretty much free reign. The town has a heavy retiree population, as well.

The district is currently represented by freshman Senator Kevin Van De Wege (D - Sequim), and state Reps. Steve Tharinger (D - Sequim) and Mike Chapman (D - Port Angeles). The district had previously been represented by Sen. Jim Hargrove (D - Hoquiam), a notorious Blue Dog. Possibly the most notable moment of Hargrove's career was during the gay marriage debate, where he voted against legalizing gay marriage and then gave a tearful speech asking forgiveness from his LGBT colleagues, as he was only voting his district.

Van De Wege, who works as a volunteer fire fighter on the side, is very popular in the area. If Derek Kilmer decided to leave WA-06 for any reason, I could easily see Van De Wege being next in line. Tharinger is more anonymous, not a full-on Blue Dog but a reliable swing vote in the legislature.

Mike Chapman's original claim to fame was in 1999, when working as a border guard at the ferry station in Port Angeles that goes back and forth from Victoria, BC. He caught (Or at least, took credit for catching) Ahmed Ressam, the Millenium Bomber. He used that as a launchpad to run for a seat on the  Clallam County Commission as a Republican, defeating the incumbent (My grandmother!). Chapman changed his registration to Independent while serving on the commission, and then to Democrat right before running for the legislature.

The district has historically voted Democrat, giving huge margins to it's moderate incumbents. The local GOP's candidates have usually been either timber bosses or local crackpots, and it's not known whether or not they'll be able to take advantage of recent trends in Grays Harbor towards them. However if Republicans continue to be pushed out of King County, they'll absolutely need LD-24 and it's neighbor to the south, LD-19, to get a majority in either chamber.