Redistricting ruling stirs partisan uproar

A federal judge incited a firestorm in Washington state politics Friday with his redrawing of a contested Yakima Valley legislative district.

As Democratic and Latino voting rights activists cheered, Republican leaders blasted U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik’s decision and said it should be overturned by a higher court.

“This is a gigantic change across the state to get the political outcome the judge and plaintiffs wanted, a Democratic district,” said a riled-up Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia. “I am sure that Judge Lasnik has had a distinguished judicial career. Frankly, the decision is shameful.”

Meanwhile, Shasti Conrad, chair of the Washington State Democratic Party, hailed the decision as “a great day for democracy.”

Lasnik adopted the district boundaries in a dispute over the 15th Legislative District and shifted the election of state Senate seats in the district to presidential election years as sought by plaintiffs and backed by Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

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. It will now be known as the 14th district, not the 15th. 

The judge acknowledged fewer Latinos of voting age would reside in the newly drawn district than in the one he found last year to be in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act for diluting the political voice of the Yakima Valley’s Latino electorate.

“The new configuration provides Latino voters with an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice to the state legislature” especially in those even-numbered year elections when Latino voter turnout is generally higher, Lasnik wrote in his 11-page order.

“We greatly appreciate that Washington’s judiciary recognized the need to rectify systemic racism in the central region of our state,” Conrad said. “Our Party will be working overtime to engage and activate constituent communities in the 14th Legislative District in this year’s elections.”

A focal point of Braun’s anger is that the new map boots five sitting GOP legislators out of districts from which they were elected in 2022, including Sen. Nikki Torres of Pasco who now represents a large swath of the Yakima Valley.

Braun said the case “constitutes harassment” of Torres, the state’s first Latina senator elected in eastern Washington. She represents the 15th Legislative District.

“This is an unjust outcome,” he said, calling it a “giant win for the Democrats to drive their way to a supermajority and no balance at all in Olympia.”

Torres and fellow Republican Sens. Curtis King of Yakima and Brad Hawkins of East Wenatchee, will all be living in new districts when the boundaries go into effect at the end of April.

Hawkins said Friday he’ll move back into the 12th Legislative District so he can run for re-election. King, whose term representing the 14th district expires this year, could not be reached for comment.

Torres, too, decried Lasnik’s action.

“This map is a mockery of the Voting Rights Act,” she said in a statement. “This map disenfranchises Hispanics – all to help the Democratic party gain seats.”

State law will allow Torres 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.

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.

Corry said Friday he will run in his new district where one of the incumbents, Republican Bruce Chandler, is retiring. Corry also criticized the decision.

“This is not about helping Latinos. This is about helping elect Democrats,” he said.

Frustrations stirred by the decision could linger into the next session.

“I think it has the potential to negatively impact relationships, unfortunately,” Corry said.