Last week I posted a couple of diaries showing alternative plans for Washington's 10 districts. One diary showed the new 10th district centered around Olympia. Another diary favored keeping counties mostly together, which results in a lot of fairly competitive districts (1st, 6th, 8th and 9th).
Well, here's other one, which takes the "Keep Counties Together" and pushes it a little back toward what the current 6th, 8th and 9th districts look like, making them safer for Dems and for Republican Dave Reichert.
See below the fold for more.
First, here are the numbers for this proposal.
District |
Total Pop |
Murray (D) 2010 |
Rossi (R) 2010 |
White |
Black |
Hisp |
Asian |
Native |
Other |
1 |
672088 |
52.1% |
47.9% |
81.6% |
1.1% |
8.1% |
3.3% |
2.6% |
3.4% |
2 |
672266 |
52.2% |
47.8% |
73.8% |
2.5% |
9.2% |
9.7% |
0.9% |
3.9% |
3 |
672479 |
43.4% |
56.6% |
75.2% |
1.5% |
15.0% |
3.4% |
1.8% |
3.0% |
4 |
672814 |
34.7% |
65.3% |
63.5% |
0.9% |
31.4% |
1.6% |
0.8% |
1.8% |
5 |
672145 |
41.5% |
58.5% |
85.5% |
1.3% |
5.3% |
2.4% |
2.3% |
3.1% |
6 |
672463 |
53.2% |
46.8% |
80.5% |
2.8% |
6.8% |
4.1% |
1.5% |
4.3% |
7 |
672685 |
81.0% |
19.0% |
65.0% |
7.6% |
8.1% |
14.1% |
0.7% |
4.6% |
8 |
672113 |
47.6% |
52.4% |
69.8% |
5.2% |
9.4% |
10.0% |
1.0% |
4.5% |
9 |
672896 |
52.6% |
47.4% |
61.5% |
8.3% |
12.3% |
10.6% |
1.2% |
6.0% |
10 |
672577 |
57.1% |
42.9% |
68.8% |
3.0% |
6.7% |
17.2% |
0.4% |
4.0% |
In this plan, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th districts are the same as in the "Keep Counties Together" (KCT) plan. The 1st changes from that plan by giving up some of Kitsap County to the 6th and in return picking up the Olympic Coast down to Ocean Shore, making it a little stronger D (52.1% Murray compared to 51.9% in the KCT plan).
The 6th gives up some of the coast of Grays harbor County to the 1st, but more importantly trades much of Thurston County for part of Tacoma, which makes it a stronger D (53.2% Murray compared to 51.6% Murray in the KCT plan).
The 8th district becomes a stronger R by giving up Democratic strongholds, such as Seatac and Burien in southwestern King County, and all of northeastern King County. It picks up all of eastern Pierce County, too. It becomes 47.% Murray, compared to 49.8% in the KCT plan.
The 9th district reverts to its current shape, taking back Federal Way, Burien and SeaTac from the 8th, as well as a large part of Thurston County. It gives up eastern Pierce County and part of Tacoma. It becomes a stronger D (52.6% Murray compared to 51.2% in the KCT plan).
The 10th district remains a very strong D. It gives up Tukwila and part of Renton in exchange for most of northeastern King County, including North Bend, Snoqualmie and up to Duvall. It becomes 57.1% Murray compared to 58.3% in the KCT plan.
Overall I think this is more realistic than the KCT plan. It improves the 8th district for Dave Reichert (R), while improving the 1st slightly for a Dem to be determined and the 6th and 9th districts for Norm Dicks (D) and Adam Smith (D), respectively. It also puts the new 10th district where the greatest population growth in the state has been, which is suburban King County. It retains the feature of making the 2nd district an all Snohomish County district. Snohomish grew the more than any county in the state except King County. One of the big questions in a plan like this is, who would run in the 1st district. But a long way to go before we get to see what the map will really look like.