Activists propose 'majority minority' congressional district for Washington

As work begins on reshaping Washington's congressional-district boundaries, some local activists want to see the state create a district that — for the first time — would be more than half minority.

That could be done, just barely, by combining Southeast Seattle with the suburbs south of the city, where the minority population has exploded over the past decade.

The Win/Win Network, a nonprofit group, drew up the potential "majority people of color" district and plans to submit it to the Washington State Redistricting Commission, the bipartisan panel charged with redrawing the state's political map this year.

"The intent is really to increase representation for communities of color," said George Cheung, director of the liberal-leaning organization.

The new district would stretch from Southeast Seattle to Federal Way. It would follow the boundaries of several legislative districts: the 11th, 30th, 33rd, 37th and 47th.

That's just one of the many proposals that will be lobbed at the redistricting commission, which has until the end of the year to draw the state's new 10th Congressional District and reshape the existing nine. The panel also must redraw the 49 state legislative districts to account for population changes over the past decade.

The "majority minority" district — one of the first new congressional district ideas to publicly emerge — faces some serious obstacles.

For starters, the idea of splitting the city of Seattle between two districts may prove controversial. The city currently is contained entirely within the 7th Congressional District.

While not ruling it out, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, the 7th District's 12-term Democratic congressman, said "it's always made sense to me" that Seattle remain unified in a single district.

Splitting Seattle could prove unpalatable to Republicans, since it would put the city's overwhelmingly Democratic vote at play in two congressional races instead of one.

Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, one of the Republican members of the redistricting commission, said the commission welcomes ideas from any group, but noted that the panel is supposed to avoid splitting cities wherever possible.

Cheung defended the idea, saying "communities in Southeast Seattle in many ways are more connected to places like Renton or Kent than they are to Laurelhurst or Northgate."

Another potential objection is that the district wouldn't give a majority to any single ethnic or racial minority — rather it would treat all of them as a single bloc.

"It assumes it's whites versus everybody else. That's not very helpful," said Richard Morrill, a Seattle demographer and University of Washington geography professor emeritus.

Still, Morrill said the proposal was "clever" and deserves a look.

The state and federal constitutions require each district to be equal in population to ensure fair distribution of political power. That means each Washington congressional district should contain about 672,000 people and each legislative district about 137,000. Cheung's proposed congressional district is a little small, coming in at just 661,000.

Federal voting-rights laws do encourage states to avoid drawing boundaries that dilute the political clout of minorities. In many states, extra care is given to drawing districts that ensure African Americans are majority, for example, due to the historical efforts to disenfranchise them.

Census figures released last month show Washington grew more diverse in the past decade but remains predominantly white, with non-Hispanic whites accounting for nearly 73 percent of the population. The Hispanic population grew the fastest — increasing 71 percent — but still accounts for just 11 percent of the state's 6.7 million residents.

Last year, Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler became the first Hispanic to represent the state in Congress, winning the 3rd Congressional District seat in Southwest Washington.

Cheung's group also is targeting state legislative districts. In Yakima County, for example, the large Hispanic population is divided between three districts. If the lines are redrawn, Hispanics could become a majority in at least one of those.

News researcher Justin Mayo contributed to this report.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com