Residents ask for unified approach to redistricting

MOSES LAKE - The Washington State Redistricting Commission visited Moses Lake to gather community input on how district lines should be redrawn.

The commission is tasked with rebalancing the boundaries of each of the state's 49 legislative districts and a new tenth congressional district based on new population counts revealed by the 2010 census.

In Grant County, congressional District 4 needs to shed nearly 102,000 people while legislative District 14 is needing to lose 6,514 people.

In Adams County, legislative District 9 needs to pick up 1,070 people.

About 35 people attended and 13 addressed the commission during a public forum held at Big Bend Community College Thursday.

Most of the people who spoke argued against any redistricting that might blur the line between eastern and western Washington.

"When you start looking at creating the tenth congressional district I very much would prefer to keep the two sides of the state separate because we have different issues," said Kittitas County Commissioner Obie O'Brien. "We want to make sure that the people who represent us are aware of what Eastern Washington is and what it's all about ... Common interests must be represented by a single entity."

Common interests include water and agriculture, O'Brien said; adding that shifting the lower part of local district boundaries in a clockwise direction might be one balancing solution.

"Then the people with like interests are still a little more contiguous as you shift things around," he said.

Moses Lake resident Dani Bolyard agreed with the clockwise rotation approach, saying it could reunite communities like Moxee and Selah with the rest of Yakima County while keeping Grant County whole.

"The more that I hear from every angle in Grant County is that we would like to be united in one district," she said. "Part of that reason, and we see this elsewhere in the state, is those slivers of counties that end up being part of a separate district often don't have the strength of representation. They tend to get forgotten and are harder to reach."

Keeping the common goals of greater Grant County in mind should be an important part of any redistricting plan, according to longtime Moses Lake resident John Smith. He said rural areas have unique needs, problems and goals that need unified representation as well as conservative rural values that tie the communities together.

"I'd like to see that preserved rather than be influenced by west side ideas of how we should live over here and how we should conduct ourselves," Smith said. "We live here because we don't want to live the way they do on the west side."

Thomas Fancher, of Moses Lake, disagreed with the notion that district boundaries must continue to reflect constituents' political leanings.

"If the political persuasions of the population are of real concerns to them they can move wherever they want to so that their votes go to where they want to be," he said. "That's one of the aspects of liberty. People have the right to make those decisions."

Mary Gillmore, of George, agreed that partisan politics should be far less important in redrawing boundaries than other considerations.

"People are going to vote the way they vote no matter where they live and it's because of what they've learned and how they think," she said. "On the east side we've worked so hard to help blend our communities and to welcome people who want to be Americans. Please don't redraw boundary lines because of ethnicity. That would be a huge step backward."

Moses Lake resident Malou Chavez told commissioners they should consider demographics.

"There are majority-minority counties and that should be considered when you redistrict Washington state," she said. "This is history, we are changing and becoming a more diverse state and ethnicity should be considered, especially when you have people getting elected who aren't representing the community."

Speaking on behalf of several Quincy interests, including the Port of Quincy, Patrick Boss said any move to redistrict the city away from the rest of Grant County would be a "bureaucratic nightmare."

Quincy may be in a far-flung corner of the county, but it relies on many Grant County entities, Boss said, including Grant County PUD and the Grant County Economic Development Council.

"If it was moved over to the 12th District ... It would be very difficult from a process standpoint for Quincy to be all of a sudden going to Wenatchee legislators and trying to convey issues related to Grant County entities," he said.

Dave Weber said his family has been in Quincy for four generations and has no desire to change districts now.

"Sociologically and certainly agriculturally we are closer to the 13th District than the 12th," he said. "We appreciate the efforts of our legislators and we've established personal relationships with our legislators who I believe would represent us in our area on a more educated basis than those in the 12th District. Our connection is with Grant County."