Issaquah residents could find themselves in a congressional district with residents of Wenatchee and Chelan while people in Sammamish could be grouped with those in Whatcom under one proposal to redistrict the state.
A state commission is drawing up new boundaries for what will be 10 congressional districts in the state and new lines for legislative districts. The districts are adjusted every 10 years after the most recent census to make sure each member of Congress represents the same number of people.
The Wenatchee/Whatcom County proposal– only a draft for now – by commission member Tom Huff, is far different from those proposed by former Sen. Slade Gorton, Tim Ceis and Dean Foster. New maps for the state’s congressional and legislative districts are due to be completed by Jan. 1, 2012, but members say that are aiming for a Nov. 1 deadline to give the public time for comments.
The other three proposals take a different track. Gorton keeps Issaquah and Sammamish remain pretty much as they are today in a district that includes northeast King County and north Pierce County.
Ceis and Foster would put Issaquah and Sammamish with such cities as Redmond, Kirkland, Edmonds and other cities north of Seattle.
Regarding legislative districts, Gorton keeps Issaquah in the Fifth District, but puts Sammamish in the 41 District with Newcastle and Mercer Island.
Ceis puts Issaquah in the 41st District and Sammamish in the 45th District.
Foster puts Issaquah into the 41 District with south Bellevue and Mercer Island, and most of Sammamish in the 5th District.
Huff leaves most of Issaquah and Sammamish in the 5th.
The committee is taking comments from the public on the draft maps up until its Oct. 11 meeting.
Nat Levy can be reached at 425-453-4290.