The Washington State Legislature is elected from 49 districts, each of which elects one state senator and two state representatives. After each census, the districts are redrawn by a body called the Washington State Redistricting Commission, a supposedly independent commission of the sort that has been so in vogue among Democrats lately. However, the Washington State Redistricting Commission has in fact been drawing Republican gerrymanders of Washington’s congressional and legislative districts, and the current legislative district map, shown above, is a perfect example.
Here are some examples of how the above map is a Republican gerrymander:
Spokane: There’s only one Democratic district in Spokane (District 3, which voted for Biden by 23 percent and Senator Patty Murray by 21 in 2022). There should be a second Democratic district in the Spokane area — there are easily enough Democrats for that — however the surrounding districts are all solidly Republican (they all voted for Trump by at least 10 and for Tiffany Smiley, Murray’s Republican opponent in 2022, by at least 15).
Vancouver: There’s only one Democratic district in Vancouver as well (District 49, which voted for both Biden and Murray by 22 percent), when there should also be two. The two other districts in the Vancouver area (Districts 17 and 18) are exquisitely drawn to both lean Republican — they both voted for Smiley by 1-2 percent.
Southern Puget Sound area: Districts 2 and 31 take Dem-leaning suburban areas east of Olympia and Tacoma and sink them with large swaths of Republican rural areas.
Eastside: Left-leaning towns like Monroe, Carnation, and North Bend located west of the Cascades are stuck with Republican areas east of the Cascades like Chelan County and East Wenatchee, in a district that voted for Smiley by 9 percent.
Island County: Dem-leaning Island County is sunk with heavily Republican areas of northern Snohomish County such as Stanwood and Arlington.
Snohomish County: Dem-leaning Lake Stevens is sunk in the 39th, which is solidly Republican everywhere else.
Whatcom County: They’ve even tried to create a winnable district for Republicans in 60-36 Biden Whatcom County by putting part of Bellingham with heavily Republican Lynden. This is the only part of the gerrymander that Dems have been able to overcome, as Bellingham expands and gets bluer, but it’s still a Republican gerrymander nonetheless.
And that’s not even mentioning the obvious VRA issues in Yakima County, where they should be required to a majority-Hispanic district that would at least lean Democratic. The current 15th does just barely have a Hispanic majority, but it spans five counties to take in as much rural territory as possible to outvote the Hispanic towns (which it easily did last year, as all of its elected officials are non-Hispanic white Republicans). A truly VRA-compliant map would remove the heavily-white rural areas and keep the district entirely within Yakima County so that the Hispanic voters there could actually elect the candidate of their choice (which, after all, is the whole purpose of the VRA).
What can we do about this? The most important thing we Democrats can do about it right now is spread the word. Far too many Democrats still believe that independent redistricting commissions are the answer to our problems, when in reality they just allow Republican gerrymanders to be drawn in Democratic states. Once Democrats understand that independent redistricting commissions in blue states only help Republicans, we can repeal the commissions (and prevent any new ones from being implemented), and draw maps that will give Democrats all the seats we deserve, in both the state legislature and Congress.
Stay tuned for Part 2 — the VA Legislature!