Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Redistricting Commission sworn in

The Redistricting Commission is finally off and running.

Redistricting Commission is sworn inThe four men tapped to serve on this decade's incarnation, which has the weighty responsibility of redrawing legislative and congressional district boundaries, were all sworn in this morning by Chief Justice Barbara Madsen prior to their first official meeting, according to Secretary of State Sam Reed's office, which sent out a news advisory.

The Democratic Party is represented by former Seattle deputy mayor Tim Ceis and former House administrator Dean Foster. The Republican Party is represented by former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton and former House budget chairman Tom Huff.

The four men will choose a fifth, nonvoting member to act as their chair. They should seriously consider a young woman of color, ideally from Eastern Washington, to add some balance and diversity.

Over the course of the next year, they are charged with putting together a new political map for the State of Washington.

They must adjust the boundaries of the state's forty-nine legislative districts to reflect population changes, and they must decide where to put the new tenth congressional district that Washington has earned.

(Each legislative district sends two representatives and a senator to Olympia; each congressional district sends a representative to the District of Columbia).

The Commission is expected to launch its own website soon. We'll let you know when that happens, and when a public meetings schedule is finalized.

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