Sen. Brad Hawkins Begins First Term in Newly-Configured 12th District

This week, Washington Sen. Brad Hawkins began his first term representing voters within the redrawn boundaries of the state's 12th Legislative District.

Legislative jurisdictions in Washington are reassessed every ten years based on changes in census data and were reconfigured by the state's redistricting commission last year.

Hawkins says the alterations that were made to the 12th District's boundaries were fueled entirely by localized changes in the state's population.

"Population growth was significant in Western Washington but not as much in Central and Eastern Washington. So the Central and Eastern Washington Districts had to essentially expand geographically to pick up population and it ended up nudging the 12th District to the west quite a bit."

Some of the areas now included in Hawkins' district which weren't previously a part of it are portions of the western edge of both King and Snohomish Counties - including cities like North Bend, Monroe, Sultan, and Gold Bar; all of Chelan County; and the entire city of East Wenatchee.

Hawkins adds that he's not the only legislator who's representing a lot of voters in areas with redrawn borders.

"Not only am I representing a new district but all of the legislators that have been elected to serve in the current legislature are representing a new district as well. Some districts, like the 12th, have changed significantly but for the next ten years, all of the legislators elected will be representing these newly-configured legislative districts."

Several districts neighboring the 12th also saw marked adjustments to their perimeters, including the 7th and 13th.