One of the most cogent arguments I've heard for district elections. And the same holds for Seattle, if not for racial matters, then for cultural issues.

Fabulous. One million internets to you for this (minus a couple points for "we shall overcome"). Thank you SO MUCH for your help getting Gonzalez past this horrible, horrible election.

Yeah, the "we shall overcome" is a bit much.

However, there must be a more general problem of Latinos just not voting...and there's really no excuse for that considering (especially) the demographics in Adams County. That 55% Latino population should mean a solid 'blue' county in Eastern Washington.

As long as "local" is defined as "the entire city" or "the entire county", local control is a fiction. On the other hand, drilling down to "neighborhood" would result in a too-large, too-fragmented governing body. The sweet spot falls somewhere in between.

Still, I bet it would be relatively straighforward to come up with reasonable districts in almost all jurisdictions. Start with such dividers as streams ("north of the creek") and major highways ("east of I-5"), and tweak it from there.

That would even work as a first draft of districts in Seattle -- split at the Ship Canal and at I-5, maybe adding 520 and I-90 as additional separators.

"It's not racist to vote your politics and it's those Latino people's fault if they don't vote, STOP ASKING WHY THINGS ARE THE WAY THEY ARE IT MAKES ME UNCOMFORTABLE HURR BLURRR."

Oh yeah, also "Why are you such sore winners, guys, geeze, your guy won, why does it matter, I live in the suburbs and literally do not understand how anything outside my WASPy neighborhood works in the slightest way whatsoever so I don't really even comprehend what you're saying but I heard once that 'racist' is a bad thing so stop saying it."

Anyway, fine piece. Definitely agree. Thank you for writing out such a cogent explanation of why this is so fucked up.

Also agree that "we shall overcome" is a little hackneyed.

I keep looking at that map and keep thinking we should split Washington state up into two states based somewhat on that split.

Racism is part of the problem here. And it's not surprising, looking at the map and seeing where the majorities that turned out for Danielson came from. Eastern Washington and Mason county, being largely agricultural, have alot of migrant farm workers. Migrant farm workers are modern-day slaves. They make next to nothing, are physically abused, have no rights and no hope of escape. The majority of migrant farm workers are from Latin America-some farms refuse to even hire non-Hispanic workers anymore. This is partly because you can abuse a non-citizen more than you can a citizen. Nobody here without papers is going to sue you when you force them to work 18 hour days in a field of plants covered in toxic pesticides and then tell them to sleep out in the rough without even so much as a roof over their head,. and then pay them a quarter for every basket of apples they pick. You can bet your ass doing that to a citizen will result in prison time, though.

So people who live near migrant farm workers/slaves will see anyone like a mfw/s as being degenerate-how else do you morally excuse yourself from behaving so inhumanely to your fellow man, other than to declare that they are less than human?

And what does Gonzales have in common with these migrant farm workers/slaves?

No lo sé...........

Wasn't The Stranger just campaigning not 2 or 3 elections ago about the Tyranny of Ward Voting?

Honestly, I'd expect better from a Perkins lawyer; this hyperbolic, overheated rhetoric is a bit much, and it's pretty lousy writing. There's a way to make this point without the histrionic claims. I'm not sure this qualifies as a deprivation of representative democracy--there are plenty of Caucasian politicians that are perfectly willing to stand up for the rights of Hispanics, African-Americans, etc. A lack of racially proportionate elected officials doesn't mean that a person is being deprived of representation ("no matter who you are or what your last name may be, you have a right to political representation"). I agree with Perez that this discrepancy is problematic, but not because I think that the state's Hispanic population is being stripped of its rights, which is an argument that I think is pretty silly.

"a system that effectively silences 49% of Central Washington"

Oh, for God's sake. That's how elections work--the 49% loses. If you don't like outcomes in which voters are "silenced," then I don't know what to tell you.

It isn't just a partisan thing either. Just ask ex-Texas Supreme Court Justices David Medina and Xavier Rodriguez. Both Republicans, both incumbent Justices, both challenged in a Republican Primary by unknown and unqualified white men with English last names. Both defeated. Medina's challenger admitted to two fellow Republican attorneys that he was challenging Medina because he could win against someone with "Mexican sounding last name". True story:
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-poli…

It isn't just a partisan thing either. Just ask ex-Texas Supreme Court Justices David Medina and Xavier Rodriguez. Both Republicans, both incumbent Justices, both challenged in a Republican Primary by unknown and unqualified white men with English last names. Both defeated. Medina's challenger admitted to two fellow Republican attorneys that he was challenging Medina because he could win against someone with "Mexican sounding last name". True story:
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-poli…

In five of the nine counties in your table, Gonzales received a higher percentage of the votes than the percentage of Hispanics in the county population, even more than twice as much. And I'm assuming that Caucasians voted in higher proportions than Hispanics. I don't think that supports your argument. Now, Adams County, that's amazing, but the others, not so much.

Yes, the demographics of local elected leaders does not reflect the local population. This has been a longstanding question: How come there aren't any Hispanics in local office, even though half the people are Hispanics? I'd propose that two factors are poverty and lack of education, combined with a resignation for the way things are. Cronyism probably plays a role, too. Political involvement may just not be part of the local Hispanic culture. There may be a lot of potential here for voter outreach.

Total B.S. top to bottom, inside and out - and that thundering sound I hear is guilt-tripped fellow white Seattle liberals falling hook line and sinker for this like the Viaduct in an earthquake. The WA Latino population by and large does not turn out and vote, plus the map for Gregoire's 2008 election looks pretty much the same as the one above -

Washington Gubernatorial 2008

@15: Gonzalez didn't run as a Democrat, so I'm not sure what comparison are you trying to draw.

@14: You say: "Where is the support from the West Side progressive to get a grassroots movement going in Yakima? "

And then you say "As a Latino, I don't want these hand me down attempts at fixing...it has to come from within."

So which do you mean?

Mr. Perez has given us all the exact information needed to end the bigotry in this area. Let us print this article and mail it to all voters in Eastern Washington. No Christmas for Eastern Washington until it can honor ALL of us. US!