The Sunday Observer: If Washington had real gerrymandering...

For real partisan redistricting, look south to Oregon

Since the Washington Redistricting Commission released its four competing plans to redraw the state’s congressional districts, there’s been a lot of performative yammering from both ends of the political spectrum about “gerrymandering,” the sometimes subtle, occasionally brutal art of manipulating the boundaries of a political constituency to favor one party.

Both political parties accused the other party’s representatives on the commission of improperly proposing gerrymandered maps, which is just goofy because the process is bipartisan and requires three of the four commissioners to agree on a map. These opening maps are like making a lowball offer on a house. You’re not really expecting anyone to say yes right away.

So let’s take a look at what real gerrymandering looks like in a neighboring state, and what it might look like here if it were allowed.