Federal judge sets new boundaries for Yakima Valley legislative district

A federal judge on Friday approved new boundaries for a legislative district in the Yakima Valley to enhance the political voice of Latino voters. 

But it will have a domino effect, uprooting three Republican senators, including the Latina state senator now representing most of the affected area.

In a much-anticipated decision, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik adopted the map drawn by those whose lawsuit led him to rule last summer that the 15th Legislative District borders violate federal law by impairing the ability of Latino voters to participate equally in elections.

The newly drawn district encompasses an area stretching from East Yakima to Pasco and includes Wapato, Toppenish, Grainger and Sunnyside. The Yakama Nation Reservation is also in the district.

And, it will now be known as the 14th district, not the 15th. The reason, plaintiffs argued and Lasnik agreed, is the Latino community will have a better chance to elect a candidate of their choosing if the legislative races coincide with the gubernatorial and presidential elections.

The new boundaries will be in effect after the April 23 special election and in time for the candidate filing period in May.

But the legal fight over the district wasn’t finished Friday, as a group of voters who intervened in the case and are opposed to the new map, filed an emergency appeal.

‘Historic win’

Because the Senate seat in the 14th is on the ballot this year and the 15th is not until 2026, it led to the numerical change. Representatives are on the ballot every two years.

“It is a historic win for this community,” said Simone Leeper, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center that represented the five Latino residents who brought the case. “This map gives the Yakima Valley Latino community at long last the opportunity to have a fair shot at electing the candidate of their choice.”

Leeper said it creates a “community of interest” whose residents can “work together to make their voice heard.”

Caty Padilla, executive director of Nuestra Casa and one of the plaintiffs, said the adopted map “would bring hope to the community of electing a representative of their choice. I can select someone who represents me in Toppenish.”

Sonni Waknin, program manager and voting rights counsel at the UCLA Voting Rights Project, said the ruling’s importance extends beyond Latino voters in Washington state.

“It also sends hope to all underrepresented communities fighting for fair representation in the United States,” Waknin said. The group is one of the firms that initiated the legal action.

The new map means changes for three Republican senators.

It pushes GOP Sen. Nikki Torres of Pasco, the chamber’s lone Republican Latina, out of the 15th District into the neighboring 16th. State law will allow her to finish her term – which runs through 2026 – even though she doesn’t live within the boundaries.

However, she’d need to move into the redrawn 15th to seek re-election. Or she could move into the newly drawn 14th district and run this year. A third option is she could challenge fellow Republican Sen. Perry Dozier of Waitsburg who is up for reelection in the 16th district this year.

The new map splits Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. That means Sen. Brad Hawkins, R-East Wenatchee, who represents the 12th District, finds himself in the 7th District now served by Sen. Shelly Short, R-Addy. 

On Friday, he announced he’ll move the short distance to Wenatchee, where he grew up, in order to remain in the 12th district and run for re-election this year.

Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, represents the former 14th district but is now in the 15th district. His term expires this year. It wasn’t immediately clear Friday if he would relocate in order to run.

In the House, Republican Reps. Chris Corry of Yakima and Gina Mosbrucker of Goldendale, who currently represent the 14th district, will both be in new districts. Corry will be in the 15th and Mosbrucker in the 17th.

A quick recap

Drawing the map for the 15th district was one of the Washington State Redistricting Commission’s most difficult agreements to reach before it adjourned in November 2021. Commissioners wound up creating a majority-minority district with Latinos comprising 73% of the total population and an estimated 51.5% of voting-age residents.

Two months later, the lawsuit was filed contending the final map violated the federal Voting Rights Act because it diluted the electoral power of those voters. The case included a trial in June 2022 featuring testimony from commissioners and voting experts.

Plaintiffs argued that while Latinos are a slight majority of the district’s voters, the final contours included areas where their turnout is historically lower and excluded communities where Latinos are more politically active. 

This fracturing can depress Latino turnout and weaken their voting strength, they argued. Lasnik agreed.

Three registered voters, including state Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, were allowed to enter the case as intervenors. They argued race was given too much weight in the drawing of boundaries and the map should be redrawn with a focus on compactness and communities of interest.

At a March 8 hearing, their attorneys also argued that the plaintiffs’ proposal, described in court papers as Remedial Map 3B, shifted at least 300,000 people across 13 legislative districts in eastern and western Washington.

Such movement was unnecessary to remedy the Voting Rights Act violation, they argued. To make their case they submitted a proposal of their own that moved fewer people and did not push any incumbent lawmakers into new districts 

Lasnik, in his order, said “shifts of that magnitude are necessary to unite the Latino community of interest in the region.” And, he continued, the “ripple effect they cause” impacts only 5.5% of the state’s overall population and “appears to be a normal redistricting occurrence.”

In his decision, Lasnik also rebutted the argument of the intervenors that the map was drawn to favor Democratic candidates. 

“The map was not drawn or adopted to favor or discriminate against either political party, but rather to unite the Latino community of interest in the Yakima Valley region,” Lasnik wrote.

One more round?

The legal fight may not be over.

Intervenors will now turn to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block the change. Their attorneys filed an emergency notice of appeal Friday and will seek an emergency stay there next week.

“They can fight. It is possible they could seek a stay,” Leeper said. “Any effort to stop that map is an effort to continue the harm against the Latino voters in the Yakima Valley.”

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik’s 11-page order issued on March 15, 2024 in the Yakima Valley redistricting case.