Washington State Democratic Party Chair Tina Podlodowski offered the following statement on the legislative district maps proposed today by the state Redistricting Commission:
“We appreciate the hard work of the Redistricting Commissioners to draft the map proposals presented today. It’s disappointing that the Republican commissioners apparently decided not to follow the direction of the law and the mission of the Redistricting Commission. The GOP has drawn effectively non-contiguous maps and have prioritized their own political and electoral objectives above the mission of the Commission as actually defined in the RCW.
“The job of the Commission is to respect communities of interest, public comment, municipalities and counties, and not the GOP’s political objectives. Maps that don’t follow the statute aren’t pursuing competitiveness, they’re gerrymandering. The GOP commissioners should go back to the drawing board and try producing maps that respect the law.”
