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Sue Lane Madsen: Redistricting: Doing the political shuffle

Time for The Big Dance. Not the NCAA March Madness version but the once-a-decade post-census political shuffle. The four members of the Washington State Redistricting Commission have issued their first maps with proposed boundary changes for both legislative and congressional districts. In Eastern Washington, there’s at least one textbook example of gerrymandering.

A glance at a map makes it clear Lincoln County is in play again. We are small enough to be useful in balancing population and geographically located in or contiguous with multiple districts.

And we are a deep red political prize, even in Washington’s bipartisan and theoretically apolitical redistricting process.

Three of Washington’s 10 congressional districts are all or almost all east of the Cascades. Testimony at a Redistricting Commission hearing earlier this year advocated for flipping the 4th and 5th congressional districts horizontal instead of vertical. At the time, I wrote it was worth considering early in the process. I’ve changed my mind.

Three of the four commissioner maps leave the 4th and 5th congressional districts running vertically from the Oregon border to Canada similar to their current territory. Rep. Dan Newhouse currently represents the 4th Congressional District, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers represents the 5th. Both are Republicans.

Brady Piñero Walkinshaw, a Senate Democratic Caucus appointee, lopped northeast Washington and Lincoln County out of the 5th district and attached them to the 4th. While it makes for a more physically compact 5th district, including both Spokane and the eastern portion of the Tri-Cities, it leaves the representative of the 4th Congressional District covering a territory from Hood River to Metaline Falls. The charts on the commission’s website (redistricting.wa.gov), which carefully lay out the ethnic demographics of each proposed district, need a column for land area and maximum drive time.

Presumably Walkinshaw knows his proposal is unpalatable, albeit potentially making the 5th Congressional District a little bit more competitive. It might be a bargaining chip for political negotiations, but it would clearly put constituents of the 4th Congressional District at a disadvantage compared to the other nine Washington districts. Hard pass.

Just as in 2011, Lincoln County is at the crossroads of five legislative districts. Lincoln County was in the 7th Legislative District along with Pend Oreille, Stevens, Ferry and parts of Spokane and Okanogan counties for over 30 years, until being moved to the 13th district at the last redistricting dance. April Sims, House Democratic Caucus appointee, would return Lincoln County to the 7th. Sims’ map is pretty straightforward for Eastern Washington except for the jelly doughnut down there around Yakima. In attempting to respond to the Yakama Nation’s request to be in a single district, her map displays a grape jelly purple 15th district surrounded by the 14th. That may need a little work. Heads up to the residents of south central Washington. Time to get involved.

When Lincoln County was combined with most of Grant County, all of Kittitas County and a little sliver of Yakima County into the 13th district in 2011, it didn’t seem to be a matter of gerrymandering as much as working from the borders to the middle and we were all left over. It’s been a good combination. The counties share similar concerns over water, issues surrounding large-scale commercial agriculture, and political culture. And even the travel distance between the Spokane County line and Snoqualmie Pass is manageable with freeway access.

But the 13th Legislative District as proposed by Paul Graves, House Republican Caucus appointee, fails to provide any of that common ground. It divides Grant County between the 9th, 12th and 13th districts. It retains Lincoln County in the 13th, connected with a narrow isthmus along the I-90 corridor to the western two-thirds of the district. And it adds a chunk of eastern King County with the boundary going nearly to Issaquah.

A legislative district stretching from Spokane’s West Plains to Issaquah is more than a bridge too far. Lincoln County’s red votes might offset King County blue votes, but it would be totally unmanageable for any legislator to effectively address such a gerrymandered district.

Walkinshaw puts Lincoln County in the 12th Legislative District and breaks up the existing 9th Legislative District in southeast Washington, bumping incumbent Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, out of her seat. While Walkinshaw’s proposed districts are geographically cohesive, they appear to be politically motivated.

In the statement of intent for his legislative district map, Joe Fain, a Senate Republican Caucus appointee, put a priority on keeping school districts together and says his “proposal reflects the interest of each of the tribal governments that communicated with the Commission.” Lincoln County lands in the 6th district with the rest of the West Plains. And that’s not a bad fit. Over 60% of employed adults in Lincoln County commute to work in Spokane County, and we’re feeling the same development pressures and opportunities.

Now the negotiations start. May the best map win.

Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.

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