The four voting members of the 2011 Washington Redistricting Commission — two Democrats and two Republicans — will be sworn in by Chief Justice Barbara Madsen in the chief’s reception room in the Temple of Justice in Olympia at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the 18^th.

The panel must choose a fifth, nonvoting, member to serve as chairman.

The commissioners are Republicans Slade Gorton, the former House majority leader, attorney general and three-term U.S. senator, and Tom Huff, the former state House budget chairman; and Democrats Tim Ceis, the former deputy Seattle mayor and former gubernatorial aide, and Dean Foster, the former chief administrator for the state House and chief of staff to Gov. Booth Gardner.

The panel will have until the end of the year to draw new congressional and legislative districts to reflect the population shifts of the past decade. The state was awarded a new 10^th congressional district after the 2010 Census, so all congressional districts will see significant boundary changes.  The state has 49 legislative districts, each with a senator and two House members.

The commission will launch a website with meeting schedules and key information.  Until then, you might find this Secretary of State’s website handy:  http://lnk.ly/3p39

Here’s a primer:

http://bit.ly/c7XEEr

And this is a new historical booklet, 14 pages, of how the congressional districts developed since statehood, and who represented each.

http://bit.ly/9yOUBe

We got our 8^th District after the 1980 Census and our 9^th after the 1990 Census.