“While one cannot fault Plaintiffs for lack of ambition, their fealty to geography and traditional redistricting principles is another matter.” “Plaintiffs decided to swing for the fences to see just how far they can exploit the Court’s ruling to benefit State Democrats,” they wrote. They also criticize the maps for requiring up to 14 legislative districts to be redrawn to fix the one Lasnik invalidated. The proposals are “overtly partisan” and each would dilute the voting strength of Latinos below the level within the current boundaries, the intervenors assert. Stokesbary, an attorney, is part of the legal team representing the intervenors. “The Court should reject all five of Plaintiffs’ proposed remedial maps,” begins the legal brief filed by a group of Latinos who intervened in the original lawsuit and opposed Lasnik’s ruling. Phil Fortunato, both Auburn residents, from the 31st District into the 5th District where they’d be running for seats now held by Democrats. It would move House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary and Sen. One proposed map would make changes as far away as King County.

If she wanted to keep serving, she’d have to challenge and unseat fellow Republican Sen. Nikki Torres of Pasco, the chamber’s lone Republican Latina, out of the 15th District into the neighboring 16th. “It’s just an effort to use the courts as rough cover to pick up a district in eastern Washington without doing a thing to help the Latino community.”įour of the proposals push GOP Sen. “This is a complete gerrymander,” Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, said after the proposed maps were filed with the court Dec. None displace a Democratic lawmaker, prompting the state Senate Republican leader to deem the proposals “a giant political power grab” that would transform a “swing” district, in which a candidate from either party could win, into one that strongly favors Democrats. He’s said he wants a new map in place for the district in time for the 2024 elections.Įach of the five options – all provided in December by those who launched the legal challenge – would move multiple GOP legislators and hundreds of thousands of residents into new districts. Lasnik ruled the district’s borders violate federal law by impairing the ability of Latino voters to participate equally in elections. A federal judge in August ordered a single Yakima Valley legislative district redrawn to give Latino voters a louder political voice.īut the solution in the redistricting dispute could leave up to eight Republican legislators pushed out of their districts and some forced to run this year against incumbent colleagues.įive possible ways to redraw the 15th Legislative District are now pending before U.S.

California district map