The recent congressional and legislative redistricting brought varied reactions in South Snohomish County.
South Snohomish County, long part of the 1st Congressional District, now will be divided between the 2nd and 7th congressional districts and the area still will be divided among the 1st, 21st and 32nd legislative districts.
Mountlake Terrace City Councilwoman Laura Sonmore likes having Mountlake Terrace, along with Lynnwood and Brier, in the 2nd Congressional District.
Sonmore said Sunday that she is “honored” to be in Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen’s district because “Larsen has proven his worth in Congress.”
Edmonds City Councilman Strom Peterson has said that he doesn’t like having Edmonds and Woodway in the 7th Congressional District because the district would remain a Seattle-oriented district, which, he said last week, would make it hard to have Edmonds voices heard.
The 7th Congressional District, which Congressman Jim McDermott has represented since 1988, takes up most of Seattle, but the state’s redistricting commission has extended it north to Shoreline, Edmonds and Woodway.
Ron Siddell, a leader of the unsuccessful November effort to establish a council-manager form of government in Lynnwood, says that he would like Lynnwood to be in the 7th Congressional District, but he would like to see all of South Snohomish County in one district. In fact, Siddell said Sunday, he would like Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Brier to become a single city. He said that he sees no logic in moving Lynnwood into the 32nd Legislative District with Woodway, south Edmonds, Shoreline and northwest Seattle, while nearby areas are either in the 21st Legislative District with Mukilteo or in the 1st Legislative District with Bothell and Woodinville.
Peterson said that he likes having Edmonds divided between the 21st and 32nd legislative districts because it continues to give the city more representation in Olympia than if it was all in a single district.
Lynnwood Republican precinct committee officer Doug Kerley says that having both the 1st and 32nd legislative districts divided between Snohomish and King counties gives the district political party organizations less influence in each county’s party organizations than each would have if the 1st Legislative District was completely in Snohomish County and the 32nd District was mostly in King County.
Robert Reedy, an unsuccessful November candidate for Mountlake Terrace City Council, says that the question should be whether there would be candidates in any of the new districts to make them competitive.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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