Washington shouldn’t gerrymander. Draw a hard line, Gov. Ferguson | Editorial

Democrats justifiably oppose a White House-backed plan to redraw voting districts in Texas to flip as many as five congressional seats to Republicans. But as they look for ways to retaliate, they should not look to Washington for help.

The stakes in next year’s midterm congressional elections are high. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. If Republicans maintain that advantage, they can continue to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda. If Democrats take over, not much will happen legislatively in Trump’s final two years. (The Senate map is more favorable to Republicans retaining control of the upper chamber.)

Historically, the party that does not control the White House fares well in midterm elections, so Democrats remain optimistic.

Republicans could game the system, though. In a recent phone call with Texas Republicans, Trump urged them to break from the tradition of redistricting every 10 years after a new census count and revise the maps now, potentially flipping up to five Democratic seats to Republicans.

With the midterms less than 18 months away and Democrats certain to sue over the legality of the move, Republicans face a major challenge to pull off Trump’s outrageous gerrymander.

But Democratic leaders such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are also talking about launching their own redistricting initiatives in Washington as well as in California, New York, New Jersey and Minnesota.

Perhaps Democrats have raised the possibility of redistricting so many states in hopes the GOP will back off, but Trump and Texas Republicans seem intent on seeing their plan through.

Gov. Bob Ferguson needs to firmly tell his fellow Democrats to leave Washington state out of any redistricting scheme. Hasty mid-decade redistricting would further weaken the public’s faith in a process damaged by the last redistricting cycle. It also would undermine a decades-long battle by Democrats at the state and national levels to depoliticize redistricting.

Washington was one of the first states in the nation to establish what was intended to be an independent, bipartisan commission to redraw maps every decade. The goal was to ensure both parties were fairly represented and that each demographic group has voting power.

That system has not always succeeded. The 2021 process became a sham that a federal judge ruled was discriminatory against the state’s Latino population. The fix was flawed, too, pushing state Sen. Nikki Torres out of her seat because in the eyes of Democrats, a Latina Republican isn’t a suitable representative for Latino Washingtonians.

Yet the independent commission model should not be abandoned just because national Democrats are anxious about losing seats in faraway Texas. Washington’s system is flawed, but it is better than the longtime tradition of gerrymandering districts to favor the party in control while throwing a few crumbs to the opposition.

Most voters want real choices between candidates in competitive elections, not gerrymandered districts.

To their credit, Washington’s Democratic lawmakers are already throwing some cold water on the idea of a mid-cycle redistricting session.

“It’s not on the table for us,” State House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, said. “We have an 8-2 delegation. It would take some very creative map drawing to get to 9-1.”

The state delegation’s two Republicans both represent districts east of the Cascade Mountains.

Besides, Democrats would need some Republican votes for the two-thirds legislative majority required to redo redistricting, and the GOP isn’t about to provide them.

“In order to turn one more congressional district into a winnable seat, Democrats would need to slash through counties, communities and natural geography in order to unite Spokane, Pullman, Walla Walla, Pasco and Yakima into a single district,” Washington House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary told the Washington State Standard. “The resulting Frankenmap would make Picasso look like a child drawing stick figures.”

Democrats should seek to win control of the House by promoting a better agenda and better ideas than the Republicans now in charge, not by gaming the system in Washington. That shouldn’t be too hard.