Washington’s 9th Legislative District might shrink

Final census population data won’t be available for another month, but initial estimates indicate Washington’s 9th Legislative District will have to shrink in size during the coming redistricting process.

The 5th Congressional District, by contrast, needs to add population.

The Washington State Redistricting Commission is tasked with accomplishing those conflicting goals, using the 2020 census numbers.

Sarah Augustine, who leads the bipartisan commission, highlighted some of the difficulties during a nearly two-hour public outreach meeting Saturday.

“In essence, the commission has to create a new puzzle out of the state, and the puzzle pieces have to contain nearly exactly the same population,” Augustine said. “As we make one puzzle piece smaller … it creates a cascade of changes in surrounding districts.”

Augustine noted the statewide numbers, released earlier this year, indicate Washington has a total population of 7,705,281. That means each of its 10 congressional districts has an “ideal” population of 770,528, while each of the 49 state legislative districts has an ideal population of 157,251.

Detailed census data for cities, counties and precincts won’t be released until late August. Based on preliminary estimates, however, Augustine said the 9th Legislative District and neighboring 8th District both have more than 157,251 people.

“That means they’ll have to lose some residents,” she said.

The 9th District includes all of Asotin, Whitman, Garfield and Adams counties, as well as portions of Spokane and Franklin counties.

In contrast, the much larger 5th Congressional District, which runs from the Canadian border to Oregon, apparently has fewer than 770,528 people and will therefore need to add population.

The district includes Asotin, Whitman and Garfield counties, as well as Columbia, Spokane, Lincoln, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties and a portion of Walla Walla County.

During a previous outreach meeting in May, several speakers suggested realigning the 4th and 5th congressional districts to run east-west, rather than north-south. That would allow the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to be included in a single district, rather than split between the two as it is now. Similarly, it would unite the Tri-Cities/Walla Walla County region in a single district.

Most of those who testified Saturday, though, supported maintaining the current north-south alignment and tweaking the boundaries as needed.

“I believe north-south makes the most sense,” Whitman County Commissioner Art Swannack said. “A lot of my boards and interactions with my fellow (commissioners) go north-south; I don’t go east-west that far for local interactions. For example, the workforce development board goes north-south.”

If the 5th District has to add population, Swannack said, the commission should modifying the boundary to include Adams County and/or Walla Walla County.

Several other speakers supported that proposal.

With regard to the 9th Legislative District, Swannack said, “I’d suggest that you lose a section of Spokane County or a section of Franklin County and Pasco. That makes the most sense to me.”

The redistricting commission has until Nov. 15 to approve new district boundaries. It’s taking public comments from around the state to help guide its deliberations.

Nearly 100 people signed up for Saturday’s online meeting, although only a few dozen actually provided testimony. Video from past meetings, as well as links to a public mapping tool and information about the redistricting process can be found on the commission’s website, at www.redistricting.wa.gov.