All of Okanogan County is in the 7th Legislative District in the new map approved by the Washington State Redistricting Commission.
State supreme court OKs late submission to lawmakers
After a midnight vote and a review from the state Supreme Court, Washington State has new Legislative and Congressional district maps — which have frustrated both sides of the political aisle in North Central Washington.
Though the Methow Valley has been in the 12th Legislative District since 1972, with Chelan and Douglas counties, the new maps place it with the rest of Okanogan County in the 7th district along with Stevens, Pend Oreille and portions of Ferry, Douglas and Grant counties.
“The proposed 7th district is huge. … It’s really hard to imagine how one representative could represent that huge of an area effectively,” said Katie Haven, chair of the Okanogan County Democrats. “I think people from every side of the spectrum are really frustrated with what happened.”
Aside from concerns about the new 7th District’s geographic size, area leadership said Okanogan County’s culture and economy fits more closely with central Washington communities in Chelan and Douglas counties, rather than the northeastern counties it’s now clustered with.
Rep. Keith Goehner, a 12th District Republican, said Okanogan, Chelan and Douglas counties generally agree on policy, which makes it easier to represent all of their interests.
“Personally I’m really disappointed for Eastern Washington,” Goehner said.
Brad Hawkins, R-East Wenatchee, a current 12th district representative in the state senate, said he felt North Central Washington stakeholders were ignored.
“Many organizations from North Central Washington provided extensive comments to the Redistricting Commission about keeping our region together, based on the shared natural resource, economic, and other interests of the area. I’m very disappointed that the 12th District boundaries have changed so drastically,” he said. “Our local stakeholders did everything the commissioners asked of us in providing comments and then they seemingly disregarded those comments in forming the new maps.”
Two of the four proposed maps moved the Methow Valley from the 12th to the 7th district. One increased the amount of Okanogan county in the 12th district.
“It was pretty shocking to see that [final] map, I have to say,” Haven said. “There was one map that was proposed that showed basically Okanogan, Chelan and Douglas county together … and they opted not to do that.”
The 7th district is currently represented by Sen. Shelly Short and Reps. Jacquelin Maycumber and Joel Kretz, all Republicans.
The 12th district is also represented by three Republicans in the state legislature — Hawkins in the state senate and Goehner and Mike Steele in the House of Representatives.
The 12th District has also undergone concerning changes, representatives said. The district now stretches across the cascades from Chelan to Monroe, covering portions of Snohomish and King counties, as well as Chelan County and a portion of Douglas County on the east side.
“Either way, if our current legislators remain and get elected, how well are they going to represent people from the west side and vice-versa?” Haven said.
Okanogan County will stay in the 4th Congressional District, now represented by Republican Dan Newhouse.
The maps will be voted on by the state Legislature at the beginning of 2022. The Legislature can make small changes with a two-thirds majority.
Last-minute debate
Every 10 years, the state Legislature convenes the Washington State Redistricting Commission to use new census data to make sure Washington’s Legislative and Congressional districts have equal populations and keep areas with similar interests together.
This year’s commission was made up of April Sims, the House Democratic Caucus appointee; Brady Piñero Walkinshaw, the Senate Democratic Caucus appointee; Paul Graves, the House Republican Caucus appointee and Joe Fain, the Senate Republican Caucus appointee and a fifth, non-voting chair.
Each of the four representatives drafts a legislative and congressional map, then tries to reconcile the four of them with public comments and other input by the Nov. 15 deadline.
This year, the committee took it down to the wire. While they debated until midnight, the commission reported Nov. 16 that it was not able to come up with an agreement by the deadline, meaning the final responsibility to draft maps was sent to the state Supreme Court.
“The late release of the 2020 census data and the Legislature’s 2019 shortening of the commission’s deadline for submission, combined with technical challenges, hampered the commission’s work considerably,” redistricting commission chair Sarah Augustine wrote in a letter to Chief Justice Steven C. Gonzalez of the Washington state Supreme Court.
However, in a decision filed Dec. 3, the Supreme Court ruled that the commission had reached a conclusion, only missing the deadline by a few seconds.
The court upheld the commission’s maps met the statutory timeline, but didn’t rule on whether the maps are compliant with any other requirements or voting rights laws.
