Dear friends,

This has been a major week in the Senate.  We passed two major pieces of legislation, and today is the first major deadline of the Session-the deadline for bills to be reported out of policy committees.

Marriage Equality

As you likely learned through the news media, the Senate passed SB 6239, which allows “same sex” marriage. Attached is a summary of the bill.   The bill emphasizes separation of church and state, and independence of churches, in a variety of ways.  The vote was 28-21.  I voted in support because I think community life is better with more people in committed, caring relationships. 

I was proud of the high caliber of the debate in the Senate on this issue.  Senators demonstrated great respect for each other, and for arguments on both sides of the issue.  Senators truly lived up to the highest of standards of respectful debate on this issue which generates such strong emotions, and which draws on such great diversity of Members’ and their constituents’ life experiences.

The debate was watched on Television Washington (TVW) by thousands of people not only here in Washington, but also throughout the world.  To view the debate, here is a LINK to TVW archives.  

Redistricting

The Senate also voted to approve EHCR 4409 which adopts the new Congressional and Legislative District boundaries, as recommended by the State Redistricting Commission. 

The US Constitution requires adjustment of these, and some local jurisdictional election district boundaries, every 10 years, following compilation of National Census data.  This year, because Washington’s population is growing faster than that of most states, our state qualified for an additional Congressional District---a new 10th District.

The State’s Redistricting Commission, organized pursuant to state constitutional provisions, worked for a year to develop these new maps, and held many public hearings throughout the state to learn about concerns of our communities.

Here are links to:

-The new 22nd District map  LINK

-The new statewide Legislative District map  LINK

-The new 10th Congressional District map, which includes the 22nd Legislative District  LINK

-The new statewide Congressional District map  LINK

The mandate to equalize population in electoral districts includes electoral districts for various local governments.  In our county, this includes Thurston County Commissioner districts, Port of Olympia Commissioner districts, Public Utility District Commissioner districts, school district director districts. 

You can learn about changes for each affected local government by contacting them.

In addition, some Precinct boundaries needed to change to be compatible with the new Congressional and Legislative District boundaries. 

Thank you to all Redistricting Commissioners for their diligent work, with a special thank you to Dean Foster, a 22nd District constituent.

Please stay in touch!