Panel formally adopts voting-district changes

The King County Districting Committee did not dawdle. In just over six weeks, it remade the county's political boundaries to shrink the Metropolitan King County Council from 13 members to nine. The last redistricting process, in 2001, took 10 months.

If the districting committee sailed swiftly, its wake was not as turbulent as many had hoped.

While redistricting was sold in last fall's election as a way to shake up local politics, many think that the county's new political map, finalized yesterday, only strengthens the status quo.

"If I had to do it again, I probably would've worked against [the redistricting ballot measure]," said Skip Rowley, a Republican and one of the five members of the bipartisan districting committee.

Rural residents had been optimistic that a nine-member council would include three rural-oriented districts, increasing the strength of their voice on the council from three out of 13 seats to three out of nine seats.

"Those changes were not going to happen," Rowley said. The new map combines the three rural seats into two.

All nine of the new seats will be contested in the November election.

Four winners

Under the new map, four council members emerge as clear winners: Democrats Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine and Republicans Pete von Reichbauer and Jane Hague.

Those council members' new districts are essentially enlarged versions of their current districts, and none of the four will have to run against another incumbent in the next election.

"I think this is excellent work done under extraordinary circumstances by people who deserve to have a lot of credit given to them by the public," Phillips said of the redistricting process.

In the past two weeks, the districting committee heard nine hours of public testimony and received more than 1,000 e-mails and letters.

Though Democrats Larry Gossett and Julia Patterson also will not face rival incumbents in November, their districts were altered significantly, losing some areas and gaining others.

Gossett, the only minority on the current council, said the districting committee did "a very good job."

But some minority groups are frustrated because the new Central Seattle district loses sections of South Central Seattle in exchange for largely white neighborhoods north of the Ship Canal.

"The way those maps are drawn dilutes the African-American vote," said Carl Mack, president of the Seattle-King County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"Ultimately, the effect is going to be a homogeneous elected body," he said.

Democrat Carolyn Edmonds retained her Shoreline and Northshore district, but the addition of a section of Northeast Seattle to District 1 puts Democrat Bob Ferguson in her district as well. The new district contains about 133,000 residents from Edmonds' current district and about 60,000 from Ferguson's.

Ferguson said he plans to start campaigning today for the November election.

Ferguson and David Irons, a Republican, both supported the ballot measure to shrink the council. Both ended up sharing a district with another incumbent, and feel that the redistricting process was an exercise in protecting existing political interests.

"What was observed primarily [by the districting committee] was where certain council members live and protecting them," Ferguson said. "Unfortunately, the redrawing of the lines was politics first and the people second."

"Going back to when we started this process," Irons said, "Larry Phillips and Pete Von Reichbauer as much as threatened" Ferguson and himself because they had supported shrinking the council.

"It wasn't very veiled," Irons said.

Two County Council members will not be seeking re-election. Republican Rob McKenna, is the new state attorney general, and Dwight Pelz, a Democrat, plans to run for Seattle City Council.

The mood of the two remaining incumbents — Steve Hammond and Kathy Lambert, both Republicans — ranged from frustration to disgust.

"Profanities are not allowed, are they?" said Hammond.

Urban dominance

Hammond, Lambert and Irons represent the county's three largest and most rural districts.

The County Council serves as the only form of local government in unincorporated areas. Residents in these districts have long complained that their council members are outvoted on the urban-dominated council and stretched too thin by the demands of responding to a far-flung constituency.

"I think it's pretty clear that the constituents are not very happy that the county doesn't seem to care about them," Lambert said.

Committee chairman Steve Ohlenkamp said yesterday that the districting committee would talk to the County Council about the need for additional staffing for rural council members.

In the new map, Lambert and Irons both live in District 3. Irons has said he may move, to either District 6 or 9, to improve his chances in the November election.

Reagan Dunn, son of former U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn, is seeking to be appointed by the Republican Party to the seat just vacated by Rob McKenna. Dunn has not announced whether he plans to run in November. He lives in the new District 9.

Yesterday, the final districting committee meeting was quiet. Members commented on the process in turn and then voted 5-0 to adopt the new map.

"If we did our job right, most everyone will be unhappy," said Ohlenkamp. "I think we've reached that balance."

"I disagree," said James Arima, a member of the Eastside Asian Pacific Islanders steering committee who was sitting in the audience. "There are people that are happy — they're just keeping quiet."

Jim Downing: 206-515-5627 or jdowning@seattletimes.com