The goal of this was to draw 8 districts capable of electing Democrats. Without detailed political data it’s difficult to know whether this is ridiculously overreaching or just “aggressive”, but I though I’d give it a shot.
The Whole State:
(Larger Resolution)
Blow up of Seattle-Tacoma:
District 1:
This district is now centered on the Olympia Peninsula, but still retails a portion of Seattle and it’s Northern suburbs.
District 2:
Loses Whatcom and Island counties in exchange for some suburban areas South of Everett and a small area East of the Cascades.
District 3:
This district (which in it’s old configuration went narrowly for Bush twice) has been shored up slightly by replacing most of conservative Lewis county with a larger portion of Olympia and Dem trending Klickitat County.
District 4:
Heart of Conservative Eastern Washington. Yakima, which was the population center of the old district has been removed in exchange for the reddest areas of the old 5th.
District 5:
Politically competitive district in Northern and far Eastern Washington. While it went for Obama in 2008, it probably supported Bush in 2004. A strong Dem from Spokane could wrest the seat from McMorris Rodgers.
District 6:
This seat has been changed fairly substantially. While, still anchored in Tacoma, it no longer contains the Olympia Peninsula, but instead has portions of Thuston, most of Lewis and a small part of Yakima counties. Current Congressman Norm Disks would be unhappy, as his Bremerton home is now outside of the district.
District 7:
To help out some of the neighboring districts the 7th now has less of Seattle and gained some suburban regions that were in the 1st and 8th. It still should be very Democratic.
District 8:
The new 8th is now entirely in King County, gaining Renton, Kent and a healthy portion of Seattle. Hopefully enough to send Sheriff Dave riding off into the sunset.
District 9:
This is the district I am the most apprehensive about. While I did give it a portion of Seattle I also added some conservative parts of Pierce County and the City of Yakima. I would want to look at more detailed political data to make sure I didn’t push it too far right.
I should have probably left the City of Yakima in the 4th and given the agricultural Southern part of the county, which is heavily Hispanic, to the Western districts. The county as a whole is not overwhelmingly Republic and only went to McCain 54 – 44, but it would be useful to know which regions supported him more.
1) Wa-5 did not go for Obama. Infact McCain won it by 6 points according to CQ.
http://innovation.cq.com/atlas…
2) Washington is on track in projections to gain a new 10th district so that would play into things as well.
3) Washington has a non partisan redistricting panel that wouldnt make such a gerrymandered map as this.
will have to do a lot of driving
I hope this would be an 8-2 but I really don’t know.
It’s not based on any knowledge of current incumbents.
There’s some population smoothing needed, and the lines of the 5th look ugly (by design), but I think I’ve gotten a possible 8-1 map. Since I’m not sure how to upload the graphics, I’ll just describe the districts.
District 1: Kitsap Peninsula, Southwest Snohomish county, a tiny sliver across the county line to the south in King (Bothell-Kenmore)
District 2: Whatcom, Skagit, the rest of Snohomish, rural northeast King, rural west Chelan, rural west Kittias
District 3: South and West Thurston including most of Olympia, South Pacific County, Wahiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, West Lewis, Southwest Skamania (this could be a dangerous district, but a moderate Dem would hold it.
District 4: Sprawling and VERY rural district containing nearly everything in Eastern Washington not named Spokane, Pullman, Walla Walla, Yakima, and the Tri-Cities. Also contains east Lewis and East Pierce. This should be my solid R district.
District 5: Narrow and winding district containing Spokane city and southeast Spokane County (the rest is in the 4th), thence south to the eastern half of Whitman, anchored by Pullman (West and north Whitman are in the 4th.) Thence west through a rural connector to all of Franklin County and most of Walla-Walla (including the city but not it’s southern reaches). Narrow line out of Franklin to capture urban areas in Benton County, and finally a spindly tendril west into Yakima. Urban enough to be amenable to a Spokane or Pullman Democrat. Not a slam dunk but I’m not sure it could be in Eastern Washington.
District 6: Basically still an Olympic Penninsula district but containing Mason, North Pacific, and most of Tacoma except it’s northern reaches.
District 7: Seattle, Shoreline, Burien, North Sea-Tac
District 8: Renton, Bellevue, Redmond, east across King County, and Central Pierce. This might be too swingy, but it was the best I could do.
District 9: Sea-Tac, Kent, Auburn, Federal Way, Puyallup, Southwest Pierce, Northeast Thurston, including about half of Olympia
because that district 9 is ugly, and I live in it.