Washington is getting a 10th congressional district, which will likely be placed somewhere in Western Washington. We’re planning on having a story on the issue posted online later today and running tomorrow in print. We have also written about this before, suggesting that while the state might gain a member of Congress, Kitsap County could feasibly lose one of its two.
In the meantime, you can read the press release that follows
from the Secretary of State’s office.
FYI: Census officials, including former Gov. Gary Locke, the
commerce secretary, have just announced that Washington state’s
population has grown rapidly enough in the past decade to warrant a
new 10th congressional seat.
The state population grew by 14.1 percent since the 2000 census, to 6,724,540 million people. The population growth in the West also was very strong, up 13.8 percent. The U.S. average was 9.7 percent, to 308.7 million people.
As had been projected from preliminary estimates, Washington will gain a 10th district, most likely to be added in the rapidly growth greater Puget Sound region. All of the current districts will be changed significantly, particularly in Western Washington.
Election officials at the state Capitol watched the Census news conference and erupted in cheers as the map flashed on the screen showing that Washington is one of a handful of states to pick up one or more seats. Several states also lost one or more seats.
Secretary of State Sam Reed said he was delighted with the news of a new seat.
“We couldn’t be happier,” he said. “This is a great day for the people of Washington. We gain in clout, with another strong voice in Congress to be added in 2012. We gain an Electoral College vote and our population gain means we get a little larger slice of the pie as federal grants are apportioned out based on population,”
The actual work of divvying up the state in equal-sized congressional districts and legislative districts will be the task of a bipartisan citizen commission. Four voting members – two Republicans and two Democrats – will be appointed by the legislative caucus leaders, and the four will choose a fifth, nonvoting, person to be chairman. The panel will have all of 2011 to develop and finalize the maps, and three of the four voting members must vote for the final product. The Legislature has virtually no role and the governor cannot sign or veto the maps.
Our Redistricting webpage with background: http://bit.ly/9Zk20q
Here’s a primer:
http://bit.ly/c7XEEr
And this is a new historical booklet, 14-pages, of how the
congressional districts developed since statehood, and who
represented each.
http://bit.ly/9yOUBe
We got our 8th District after the 1980 Census and our 9th after the 1990 Census.
