The disdain shown by the Legislature’s majority Democrats for the rule of law this year isn’t limited to their passage of an unconstitutional state income tax. They’re now looking to gain more power by targeting the bipartisan way our state’s legislative and congressional districts are redrawn.
The political climate in our nation has caused an unfortunate surge in mid-decade redistricting. While it’s customary for states to redraw maps every 10 years to reflect population shifts revealed by the federal census, eight states have gone early. From California to Florida, new districts will be in place ahead of the mid-term national elections coming up in November.
Eight more states are reported to be at least thinking about premature redistricting. Washington is on that list. Governor Ferguson has recently proclaimed himself to be the leader of any such effort, if his party picks up the necessary number of seats in the upcoming general election.
Fortunately, voters can and should derail the Democrats’ dream of more power – simply by denying them more legislative positions. That will protect a redistricting process that is a model for our nation while preventing what would be Washington’s second partisan mid-decade redistricting of the 2020s.
The first example of off-schedule redistricting this decade was focused on central Washington and completed in March 2024. Ideally, it could also be undone because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
In many states legislators still are in charge of drawing new district maps, with predictably partisan results. Our process was added to Washington’s constitution by the voters in 1983, with bipartisan legislative backing, and is designed to prevent the “gerrymandering” that gives one political party an unfair advantage.
It’s an elegantly simple approach: a five-member commission convenes “in January of each year ending in one,” as the constitution puts it. Two voting members are appointed by each of the two major political parties, plus a non-partisan, non-voting chair.
The commissioners negotiate and hold public hearings and propose different maps. Because at least three of the four must agree on the final map – which is submitted for adoption by the Legislature, with very minimal changes allowed – bipartisanship is assured.
Many have declared Washington’s redistricting process to be the best in the country.
The final map produced by the previous redistricting commission was adopted by legislators during our 2022 session. It continued the “majority-minority” quality of Washington’s 15th Legislative District, which is in the heart of the Yakima Valley, by setting the boundaries so 52% of its voting-age residents were Hispanic.
Even so, Democrats were tired of seeing their 15th District legislative candidates lose, decade after decade. Partisan special interests from outside our state found local proxies to file a lawsuit, claiming a violation of Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act. The allegation was that the Yakima Valley’s Hispanic voters were being denied an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
The 2022 general election made Nikki Torres the first Latina woman east of the Cascades to win a seat in the state Senate. It didn’t matter – Senator Torres is a Republican, which didn’t fit with the Democrats’ belief that their candidates are entitled to Hispanic votes. The sham lawsuit continued.
In the summer of 2023, federal Judge Robert Lasnik sided with the Democrats. Redraw the 15th District, he ordered, not only claiming Democratic candidates are preferred by Latino voters but also asserting that the Democratic platform is better aligned with the economic and social preferences of Latinos in the Yakima Valley region.
The constitutional amendment approved 43 years ago provides for such a situation. If a districting map needs modifying, the redistricting commission may be reconvened if two-thirds of the 49-member Senate and two-thirds of the 98-member House agree. Republicans pushed for that. Jay Inslee and Democrat legislative leaders resisted.
Bob Ferguson, then attorney general, should have stepped up and defended the work of the redistricting commission and the legislative vote to adopt it. He abdicated that duty.
The job of approving a new map fell to Judge Lasnik, a Clinton appointee. He chose one that changed the lines of more than a quarter of Washington’s 49 legislative districts. Five sitting Republican legislators found their home addresses pushed into adjacent districts, as did tens of thousands of voters. They included Senator Torres.
The political lean of the 15th District went from marginally Republican to massively Democratic. Ironically, tilting the district their way meant Democrats had to reduce the proportion of Hispanic residents – but Democrats weren’t bothered by that. Many Hispanics support the lower-tax, smaller-government philosophy of Republicans. To Democrats, those aren’t the right kind of Hispanics.
We already know Judge Lasnik’s ruling is at odds with a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. On April 29 it struck down a Louisiana districting map that was adopted in 2024, like Washington’s, because the previous map was found by a lower-court judge to violate Section 2 of the VRA – also like Washington’s. The question is how he will respond to the request Republicans have made to restore the Washington maps from 2022.
In the meantime, it is essential that voters seize their opportunity this fall to swing the political pendulum back toward the political center. The past eight years of left-leaning rule from Olympia have already brought a slew of tax increases – including the income tax, which needs to be repealed. They have brought costly policies like the climate laws that are driving up the cost of living in Washington while doing almost nothing for our environment.
These, along with spending that is absolutely out of control, are behind the affordability crisis in our state. And that’s not counting the setbacks on public safety and policies affecting our children.
Democrats continue to show they lack respect for the constitution and the will of the people. They deserve to lose power, not gain it. A change in leadership is how our state can do better.
Senator John Braun was first elected to the Washington State Senate in 2012 to represent Southwest Washington’s 20th Legislative District, which includes most of Cowlitz and Lewis counties along with parts of Clark and Thurston.
John is leader of the Senate Republican Caucus and a member of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, the Labor & Commerce Committee, and the Housing Committee.
Prior to his business career, John served on active duty in the U.S. Navy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington and master’s degrees in business administration and manufacturing engineering from the University of Michigan.
He and his family reside on a small farm in rural Lewis County, outside Centralia.
COMMENTARY DISCLAIMER: The views and comments expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Lynnwood Times nor any of its affiliate
Author: Lynnwood Times Contributor
