A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021
IN BRIEF
LASTING
LIGHT
Nineteen new coronavirus cases
reported in county over the weekend
The Oregon Health Authority reported 19 new coro-
navirus cases in Clatsop County over the weekend.
Since the pandemic began, the county has recorded
1,683 cases and 12 deaths.
The county reported that 23,094 people — 58.5%
— were fully vaccinated against the virus as of Friday.
The county has set of a goal of having 27,533 people
— 70% — vaccinated to try to achieve herd immunity.
In a weekly update on local hospitalizations from
the virus, the county reported 14 from Aug. 14 to
Friday, the same number as the previous week. The
county said 10 of the people hospitalized were unvac-
cinated and four were vaccinated.
The North Head Lighthouse
rises from the mist at Cape
Disappointment State Park.
David Campiche
Virus cases disclosed at
North Coast Family Fellowship
SEASIDE — Pastor John K. Nagle, in a letter to
parishioners at North Coast Family Fellowship, said
last week that “a number of our staff members have
contracted COVID.”
Nagle said he was diagnosed as COVID positive,
along with two staff members. “None of us are, at this
moment, horribly ill, but we are defi nitely ‘out of com-
mission’ for the next 10 days provided that our symp-
toms are gone for 24 hours prior to ‘reentry,’” he said.
The church has limited access for all but essential staff
and volunteers, he said. Sunday services were held online.
— The Astorian
DEATH
Aug. 20, 2021
In WILSON,
Brief
Lanny D., 77, of Astoria, died in Port-
land. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary of Astoria is
in charge of the arrangements.
Death
MEMORIALS
Saturday, Aug. 28
from 1 to 4 p.m., War-
Correction
FALCK,
Raymond renton Community Cen-
Stanley (Ray) — Grave-
side service at 1 p.m.,
Ocean View Cemetery, 575
S.W. 18th St. in Warrenton.
Sunday, Aug. 29
FORNEY, Norman R.
Jr. — Celebration of life
ter, 170 S.W. Third St. in
Warrenton.
HEINER, Dan William
— Celebration of life and ice
cream social at 2 p.m., Clat-
sop County Fairgrounds,
93003 Walluski Loop.
Incorrect grade — Silqet Ra’s daughter will attend
fi rst grade this school year. An A1 story on Saturday
about child care challenges on the North Coast incor-
rectly said she would attend kindergarten.
ON THE RECORD
Theft
second degree, harassment
On
Record
• Edgar the
Emmanuel
Ortiz in the third degree, resist-
ing arrest and criminal
trespass in the fi rst degree.
DUII
• Steven Craig Oster-
lund, 60, of Gearhart, was
arrested Sunday morning
on McCormick Gardens
Road in Gearhart for driv-
ing under the infl uence of
intoxicants, criminal tres-
pass in the second degree
and criminal mischief in
the second degree.
• Joshua Ray Ship-
ley, 20, of Warrenton, was
arrested Saturday morning
at S.E. Galena Avenue and
E. Harbor Drive in War-
renton for DUII, hit-and-
run and failure to perform
the duties of a driver.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Arts Council of Clatsop County, 11 a.m., 800 Exchange
St., Suite 430, Astoria.
Astoria City Council, noon, special meeting to consider
vaccination requirement for child care providers, City Hall,
1095 Duane St.
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, 5:15 p.m.,
Bob Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A, Seaside.
Astoria Planning Commission, 5:30 p.m., City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave.
WEDNESDAY
Astoria Parks Board, 6:45 a.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 6 p.m., (elec-
tronic meeting).
THURSDAY
Sunset Empire Transportation District Board, 9 a.m.,
(electronic meeting).
Cannon Beach Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall,
163 E. Gower Ave.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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and Saturday by EO Media Group,
949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
97103 Telephone 503-325-3211,
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DailyAstorian.com
Will Portland continue to
be chopped up into slices to
maintain districts that stretch
out further from the center of
the city? Republicans point
out Portland is just short of
the 710,000 mark for its own
congressional district — a
prospect that would make
the GOP more competitive
elsewhere.
Boundaries redrawn
after 2020 census
CORRECTION
Vera, 23, of Salem, was
arrested Aug. 15 at Walmart
in Warrenton for theft in the
fi rst degree and criminal
mischief in the third degree.
Criminal trespass
• Eduardo Jose Alonzo,
33, of Warrenton, was
arrested Sunday night for
criminal trespass in the
fi rst degree and theft in the
second degree at Walmart
in Warrenton.
Disorderly conduct
• Andrew Alton Larsen,
41, of Hammond, was
arrested Sunday morning
at the South Jetty Dining
Room and Bar on Pacifi c
Drive in Hammond for
disorderly conduct in the
Public can experiment with new political maps
Circulation phone number:
800-781-3214
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By GARY WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
It’s a new video game that
comes with a big prize.
It’s not streaming on
Twitch or played on an Xbox
console.
It’s on OLIS, which is not
a gaming company, but the
Oregon Legislative Informa-
tion System.
The point of the game
is to design a new political
map of Oregon — a patch-
work of blue and red.
The grand prize is polit-
ical sway in Oregon for the
next 10 years.
Normally this once-a-
decade resizing of political
districts has the L egislature
drawing maps, the L egis-
lature voting on maps and
the governor signing off on
maps. The public role is in
hearings.
If all goes swimmingly —
somewhat of a historical rar-
ity — there is a new political
atlas for the next election.
This year, mapmaking
is going pro-am as amateur
cartographers can get on the
OLIS video game to draw
their own political dream
maps. They’ll get the same
recently arrived, deeply
detailed c ensus tract infor-
mation and software pro-
gram as lawmakers use.
“Oregonians can begin
drawing new lines using the
gold standard data,” said
state Rep. Shelly Boshart
Davis, R-Albany, co-chair
of the House Redistricting
Committee.
The starting point is
www.oregonlegislature.
gov/redistricting. After cre-
ating an account, taking a
tutorial and preparing a lot
of patience to deal with the
wonky program, mapmak-
ing can begin.
As a template, the dis-
tricts with a 37-22 Demo-
cratic majority in the House
and 18-12 edge in the Sen-
ate can be called up for ref-
erence. So can the U.S.
House map of the delega-
tion’s four Democrats and
one Republican.
A few valley curves, a
straight-edge county line,
following a river path, or
running up against a moun-
tain range will be challeng-
ing. But with enough eff ort
and time, voila! your own
version of the political land-
scape of Oregon.
The full slate of work
includes:
• Six congressional dis-
Biggest scramble
Brian Hayes/Statesman Journal
Oregon will redraw political boundaries based on new census data.
tricts of 710,000 people each
• 30 Senate Districts of
127,700 people each
• 60 House Districts of
63,850 people each
The computer will tell
you whether your maps meet
geographical requirements
and demographic goals.
Tripping points
One of the biggest trip-
ping points is Oregon’s
requirement that two House
districts be completely
“nested” inside each Sen-
ate d istrict. So, for example,
House d istricts 59 and 60
fi t completely inside Senate
District 30.
There also are federal
voting rights laws. Ore-
gon’s state directives say
districts must be contigu-
ous, be of equal population,
utilize existing geograph-
ical or political boundar-
ies, not divide communities
of common interest and be
connected by transportation
links.
The full set of do’ s and
don’ts, rules, laws and other
mapmaking stuff is on the
website.
When done, the map can
be submitted to the L egisla-
ture for consideration. The
deadline is 5 p.m. on Sept. 7 .
A note of receipt of the
map will be sent by email.
Whether maps found to
have fl aws will be noted in
time for resubmission is still
undecided .
“It depends on how many
maps we receive,” said Alli-
son Daniel, a legislative pol-
icy and research analyst.
Those that make the cut
by checking all the boxes for
size, shape, location, equity
and other items will pop up
on the legislature’s redis-
tricting website.
After a whirlwind series
of public hearings, the com-
mittee will deliberate on
what plan to bring to the full
L egislature when it meets
in a special session begin-
ning Sept. 20. The hope is
the House and Senate can
debate and pass the legisla-
tion quickly so it can get to
Gov. Kate Brown for review.
The Oregon Supreme
Court has set a Sept. 27
deadline to receive the maps.
Making maps that work
on every level is not easy, no
matter your political stripes.
Oregon’s state popula-
tion is 4.2 million . But the
nearly 10.6% growth wasn’t
spread out equally across the
36 counties.
Only Grant County lost
population, but much of
E astern Oregon and parts of
southwestern Oregon beside
Jackson and Josephine coun-
ties grew at a relatively tepid
pace.
All the new numbers and
percentages will determine
whether districts shrink or
stretch — and with them,
any shifts in political power
in Salem.
In Portland, House dis-
tricts are densely packed
with people. Some districts
are measured in a matter
of blocks. On the fl ip side,
much of Oregon east of the
Cascades has a lot of land
and not a lot of people.
Incumbents could fi nd
themselves battling allies
over fewer people meaning
fewer districts.
Portland is now the 25th
largest city in the nation, it’s
652,503 population placing
it just below Boston and just
above Las Vegas. In the past
decade, it passed Milwau-
kee, Louisville, Baltimore,
Memphis and Detroit — but
was leapfrogged by Okla-
homa City.
The city makes up most
of Multnomah County,
where the population grew
by 80,000 people in 10 years
— roughly equal to adding
everyone in Medford.
The biggest scramble will
be over the congressional
seats. Where to put the sixth
seat the state was awarded
for its population growth.
All fi ve incumbents are run-
ning for re election — who
will have to give up what
territory to form the new
district?
The Cascades are a
mighty tall wall to get over
for any change. Bend is a
growing Democratic island
in a Republican landscape.
But unless mapmakers can
justify straddling the Cas-
cades, it’s likely stuck in the
2nd C ongressional D istrict,
a slam-dunk for the GOP.
The spoiler is that all this
mapmaking could end up
counting for nothing. Most
recent redistricting plans
ended up stuck in gridlock
in the L egislature, with the
jumble ending up in the lap
of the secretary of state or
the courts.
Democrats had hoped by
controlling both chambers
of the L egislature and the
governor’s offi ce, this was
the year to get it all done.
COVID-19 tossed a chance
for a relatively undramatic
redistricting into the trash
bin.
Whoever ends up draw-
ing the fi nal maps, there’s
one group hanging on every
twist and turn of the process:
the candidates. The window
to fi le for offi ce opens Sept.
9. The deadline to get on the
ballot is March 8 .
It’s doubtful that any of
the legislative seats will be
more than guessing games
until somewhere in between
those two dates.
Candidates and vot-
ers will have to wait until
autumn to see what the polit-
ical landscape starting in
spring 2022 will look like.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
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