OLYMPIA – Tuesday is Election Day 2011 – or what passes for one in a state that mailed out its ballots two weeks ago and will spend more than two weeks counting the returns – but it could be a key day for Election Days 2012-21.
That morning is the next meeting of the state Redistricting Commission, which is weighing two proposals to redraw congressional and legislative lines in Washington…

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There's a break in the legislative action this weekend, so several Spokane-area legislators will be back in their home districts to hold town hall meetings.

The break is a result of the Legislature passing a major deadline for voting bills out of one chamber, and not yet reaching a key point in crafting the next biennium's budget, the state economic forecast which comes out March 17. Because of that, neither house is in session this weekend, so it's a good time for legislators to head home for a few days, and Saturday seems like a good day for town hall meetings.

Here's a list of what's scheduled for Saturday.

3rd Legislative District
Sen. Lisa Brown, Reps. Timm Ormsby and Andy Billig.
  10 a.m., Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook St.
  2 p.m., Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, 2316 W. 1st Ave.

6th Legislative District
Sen. Mike Baumgartner, Reps. Kevin Parker and John Ahern
  10:30 a.m. Northwood Middle School gymnasium, 13120 N. Pittsburg St.
Parker
  2 p.m., Education themed town hall at Northwood Middle School library, 13120 N. Pittsburg St.
Baumgartner
  5 p.m. town hall at the MAC, 2316 W. 1st Ave.

9th Legislative District
Rep. Susan Fagan
  10:30 a.m., WHMC Public Education Building, 1200 W. Fairview St., Colfax
  2 p.m., Cafe Moro, 100 E. Main St., Pullman

Southeastern Washington legislative candidate Susan Fagan picked up the endorsement of the Republicans’ last two gubernatorial nominees.

OK, that was just a chance to see if you were paying attention after a three-day weekend. As anyone with a working knowledge of Washington politics knows, the same person has been the GOP’s nominee for governor for the last two elections.

Former State Sen. Dino Rossi is endorsing Fagan for that empty 9th District House seat, though.

One might wonder what impact that has, considering Rossi was unsuccessful in his two runs for governor. (Unless one wants to argue that he actually was successful in 2004 but had the election stolen from him, but the statute of limitations has kind of run on that one.)

The answer, though, is potentially a big impact. Rossi got 58 percent of the vote in the 9th District last year. And with two Republicans — Fagan and Pat Hailey — on the Nov. 3 ballot, this kind of endorsement could be significant for Republicans trying to choose between the two.