Washington

Washington is a state located in the Pacific Northwest, bordering Idaho to the east and Oregon to the south. It has 10 electoral votes and is a lean Democratic state.

State House


The Washington State House is composed of 98 members, each directly elected from a state house district. Members serve terms of 2 years. Elections to all House seats occur during each even-numbered year.

The House is charged with the passage of state legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the governor for consideration. Any House member may draft bills, which will then be assigned to the relevant House committee at the beginning of the next week. The number of bills any individual member may draft is unlimited; however, each bill requires 25 hours to draft.

There is a committee system in the Washington House. Committees hold specialized hearings on relevant bills. A House member must serve on at least 1 and at most 2 committees. If the member has a sufficient number of political points, they may choose to serve as the ranking member of their political party on at most 1 of their chosen committees.

Playable subcommittees include: Appropriations; Tax and Fiscal Policy; Education; Health Care; Transportation, Infrastructure, Housing and Community Development; Judiciary, Public Safety, and Corrections; Commerce, Labor, and Career Development; Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources; Human Services.

Non-playable subcommittees include: Agriculture; Elections and General Government; Veteran Affairs and Homeland Security; Ethics.

A committee chair is the ranking member of the House's majority party within that committee. Above all other members of the House, a committee chair has the right of first review over any draft bill that falls within the purview of the committee. The committee chair may grant or refuse a hearing. If the committee chair refuses to grant a hearing on a bill, that bill can no longer advance. This is true even if the bill already passed through the Senate.

Once a bill is granted a committee hearing, all ranking and regular members on the committee have the right to offer amendments and have those amendments voted on. A tie or majority vote leads to adoption of an amendment. After the amendment process is complete, a final committee vote is held. A tie or majority vote allows the bill to advance to the floor of the full House. The entire committee phase takes one week.

When a bill reaches the House floor, a hearing is held. Any member of the House may offer amendments, which are immediately voted on. When the amendment process is complete, a final floor vote is held. Upon passage by the House, a bill is sent either: (a) to the Senate, (b) to the governor, or (c) to conference report. The House floor phase takes one week.

If the House considers a Senate-approved bill but then passes an amended version, the bill must be sent for a conference report to adjust any discrepancies between the House and Senate versions. After that, both chambers must hold a floor vote on whether to approve the conference report.

Districts
In default mode (4/21/2020), the State House district configuration is about proportionate to the partisan lean of the state as a whole. Forty-two of 98 districts lean Democratic by more than 10%. Another 10 districts lean Democratic by 5-10%. Twenty-two districts lean Republican by more than 10%, and 8 more lean Republican by 5-10%. Under this configuration, a neutral election year leads to an average party breakdown of 52D-30R and 16 tossups. To win party control, the Republican Party must win at least 2 seats that lean Democratic by 7% or more.

State Senate
The Washington State Senate is composed of 49 members, each directly elected from a state senate district. Members serve terms of 4 years. Elections to the Senate are not staggered. Elections to all seats occur in the same year as U.S. presidential elections.

The Senate is charged with the passage of state legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the House, are sent to the governor for consideration. Any state senator may draft bills, which will then be assigned to the relevant Senate committee at the beginning of the next week. After a bill's hearing on the Senate floor, any senator may offer amendments, which are immediately voted on. When the amendment process is complete, a final floor vote is held. If the Senate amends and passes a bill that began in the House, the bill will be sent for a conference report to adjust any discrepancies between the House and Senate versions. After that, both chambers must vote on whether to approve the conference report.

There is a committee system in the Washington Senate. Committees hold specialized hearings on relevant bills.

A committee chair is the ranking member of the majority party within a committee. Above all other senators, a committee chair has the right of first review over any draft bill on an issue that falls within the purview of the committee. The committee chair may grant or refuse a hearing. If the committee chair refuses to grant a hearing on a bill, that bill can no longer advance. This is true even if the bill already passed through the House.

Districts
In default mode (4/21/2020), the State Senate district configuration is about proportionate to the partisan lean of the state as a whole. Twenty-one out of 49 districts lean Democratic by more than 10%. Another 5 districts lean Democratic by 5-10%. Ten districts lean Republican by more than 10%, and 4 more districts lean Republican by 5-10%. Under this configuration, a neutral election year leads to an average party breakdown of 26D-14R and 9 tossups. The median district leans Democratic by 7.8%.

Governor
The governor of Washington is directly elected to terms of 4 years. Elections to the governorship are held in even years opposite to U.S. presidential elections. The governor may sign into law or veto any state bill that has passed through both houses of the state legislature. The governor may also draft legislation and send it to the state legislature for consideration. Draft bills from the governor almost always begin in the House and have to withstand the regular committee process.

Counties
Below is a table of counties in Washington, included with population, party registration and poverty rates.