The Associated Press and Peninsula Daily News
OLYMPIA — A plan to redraw Washington’s congressional districts would create a competitive seat in northwest Washington, anchor a new district in Olympia and create the state’s first majority-minority district in the Seattle area.
Under the proposal by the Washington State Redistricting Commission, Clallam and Jefferson counties remain in the 6th Congressional District represented by Democratic Rep. Norm Dicks of Belfair, although the 6th District is affected in the shake-up.
The district gains Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap, which were part of Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee’s 1st District.
That means that the district encompasses all of Kitsap County, which includes Bremerton.
It loses Shelton, which becomes part of the new 10th Congressional District.
Dicks is in his 18th term in the district.
“From Norm’s standpoint, this configuration appears to respect ‘communities of interest’ [a commission objective] and it imposes the least amount of change on communities and constituents he has represented,” Dicks spokesman George Behan said in an email.
The proposal released Wednesday dramatically reshapes the map on the western side of the state to make room for the new 10th Congressional District, which was allocated to the state after a decade of population growth.
The plan has the state’s new 10th District embracing Olympia, Shelton, Dupont, Yelm and Puyallup.
The 1st District being vacated by Inslee stretches east of the Interstate 5 corridor, from the wealthy enclave of Medina to rural King County to the northern border.
That composition makes the 1st District a swing seat that both parties will be targeting in 2012.
Democratic Commissioner Tim Ceis, who agreed to the plan with Republican counterpart Slade Gorton, said he expected that district to be the one to watch.
Several candidates already have lined up to campaign for the open seat.
“I tend to think it’s a swing-Democratic district,” Ceis said.
“I’m sure Mr. Gorton thinks it’s a swing-Republican district.”
The map essentially leaves four comfortably Republican districts — the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th — and five comfortably Democratic ones along the I-5 corridor from Olympia to Bellingham and on the Olympic Peninsula.
All incumbents would remain living in the districts they represent, although thousands of voters would be living under new representation.
By centering the new 10th District around Olympia, negotiators have opened a lane for Denny Heck, a former chief of staff to ex-Gov. Booth Gardner who immediately announced his campaign for the seat with the backing of state Democrats.
That district also stretches up to parts of Tacoma.
Ceis and Gorton said they both sought to create a competitive seat using different criteria — from voting patterns to geography to demographic trends.
They both had initially proposed ways that their parties would claim an extra seat under the new maps.
“I didn’t get everything I wanted,” Gorton said.
“What a coincidence. Neither did I,” Ceis responded.
The 9th District, currently represented by Rep. Adam Smith, will become the state’s first majority-minority district because it is slightly less than 50 percent white, mainly due to large blocs of Asians and blacks.
It covers areas south and east of Seattle, including Federal Way, Renton and Bellevue.
Negotiators said they created the minority district after repeatedly hearing the request in public testimony.
Redistricting plans are coming together around the country, in a process that takes place every 10 years to ensure each district has a balanced population.
Washington’s commission is composed of two Republican appointees, Gorton and Tom Huff, and two Democratic appointees, Ceis and Dean Foster.
At least three of them must agree on the maps to approve them by a New Year’s Day deadline, and the two commissioners who were not involved in the congressional process did not immediately share their thoughts on the proposal Thursday.
If the panel fails to reach an agreement, the state Supreme Court will take control of the process.
If the commission does reach an agreement, the Legislature will have an opportunity to make minor modifications.
Previous agreements focused on legislative boundaries for districts in Western Washington that would keep Port Townsend and other populated areas of East Jefferson County within the 24th District.
An earlier plan had moved those areas to the 23rd District.
Commission members are still working on the eastern side of the state.
The public can submit comments online at http://tinyurl.com/br9wwfa —click on link that says “comment on a plan” — or call 360-786-0770.
Lura Powell is the non-voting chair of the commission.
