Lynnwood Republican precinct committee officer Douglas Kerley hopes for legal action against the state’s recently completed legislative and congressional redistricting.
Kerley and a man from southwest Washington have expressed concern about odd-shaped legislative districts in their respective parts of the state.
The two men hope that State Attorney General Rob McKenna will bring action against the redistricting process.
Kerley asked last week if we want “safe” districts for the incumbents to entrench themselves forever so they can do what they like “or would you rather have redistricting done correctly? I think that this is the only time that the law can level the playing field. We must enforce the law or disrespect for the law will become ever more rampant.”
Kerley said that he is “disheartened about the blatant gerrymandering of our congressional districts to retain (Democratic 2nd District Congressman) Rick Larsen at any cost.”
“I am afraid the cost is the integrity of our Redistricting Commission, its commissioners and its whole process. In the words of Americans for Redistricting Reform, ‘The most recent redistricting cycle after the 2000 Census saw unprecedented efforts to use redistricting for partisan purposes. First, technology made it possible to gerrymander with great precision. The result was that the 2002 election was less competitive than any post-redistricting election since 1962. Historically, post-redistricting elections have generally been more competitive, because the drawing of new lines mitigates incumbents’ advantage by introducing them to a new group of voters. The 2000 round had the opposite effect.
“It looks like we are back to court-supervised redistricting again because these boys can’t play fair again. More millions down the drain.”
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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