The state congressional redistricting proposal released on Wednesday morning not only adds a new 10th District in the Olympia area, but, closer to home, would move Beacon Hill and part of Georgetown from the 7th District into the 9th District. The 9th District, with Southeast Seattle as well as Bellevue, Mercer Island, Newcastle, Renton, Kent, Federal Way, Des Moines, SeaTac, and Tukwila, would become the state’s first “majority-minority” district, containing 50.33% people of color. The rest of Seattle would remain in the 7th District, represented for many years by Jim McDermott.
The 9th Congressional District is currently represented by Democrat Adam Smith.
You can comment on this plan online here. (Comments are public. Previous comments may be read here.) Time is of the essence; the redistricting commission, made up of two Republican appointees and two Democratic appointees, must agree on a plan by New Year’s Day. If they cannot agree, the decision falls to the State Supreme Court. If they do agree, the legislature will have 30 days to make changes, with a required two-thirds vote.
Earlier this month, the commission proposed a new map for state legislative districts, but there were only minor border changes in Southeast Seattle, where Georgetown and the western part of Beacon Hill would remain in the 11th District and the rest of Southeast Seattle (including most of North Beacon Hill) would remain in the 37th District.
For further information on the broader statewide implications of the proposed plan, see our news partners at KOMO.
I am kind of torn on this. On one hand, I’m annoyed that they are splitting Seattle into two pieces. It has been nice having a single urban district. On the other hand, I like that 9th district will probably become more liberal than Adam Smith and hence the 9th will get more progressive representation. It does seem to me that the legislative priorities that SE Seattle and Bellevue/Medina/Mercer Island have are often quite different. I think any congressional representative will be challenged by that.
What happened to not discriminating..
So now we need to have an all “minority-majority” in the State of Washington.
Stop messing with peoples lives and work on the important issues..like helping business to create more jobs, by getting rid of all the restrictions and rules.