I know I said I’d avoid politics on this blog from now on, but this really isn’t politics as much as its playing around with cool maps. It all starts with this cool tool by Dave Bradlee that lets you manually redraw congressional lines. Its a bit clunky at first, but as soon as you get a handle on how it works, it is pretty awesome.
First, consensus is that Washington is getting an additional district after the census is done. Dick Morrill up at the UW makes a pretty good argument that the new district would be centered on Olympia (hey, have to be happy about that, right?).
What he doesn’t really do is show you how that Olympia-centric district would shift all the other districts around. So, after about an hour or so of tinkering, here’s what I came up with.
Statewide
Puget Sound detail
New 10th detail
Where I fudged the most, between Yakima and the Tri-Cities, using the population out there to balance out three districts.
Will having two members of the federal caucus working for both sides of the Cascade Curtain help bring that division down?
3. On the other hand, I think I created a pretty safe Democratic 10th. Even though it seems pretty rural, except for Pierce and Thurston counties, the three rural counties mostly elect Democrats to the state legislature.
4. And, yes, I balanced this out by playing fast and loose with the area between Yakima and the Tri-Cities. Since I have the 9th CD currently breathing down my neck a few miles away, I don’t feel too bad about the crowded Interstate 82 corridor.
Funny that you say right in the beginning, that you dont want to talk about politics, cause that's exactly what I was thinking whei read your link on FACEBOOK… Oh no, not politics again… Heheheh
See? Its just awesome maps! And politics, but mostly awesome maps.
The Olympia Library has a book in their reference collection on the history of congressional districts, so I'm going to have to read that.