Marko Liias of Edmonds is running in 1st Congressional District, but which other potential candidates will be part of the District?

Rep. Marko Liias, D-21

By Evan Smith

As candidates announce plans to run for Congress next year, we still don’t know who will be part of which district.

We won’t really know until the bi-partisan redistricting commission finishes its work at the end of December.

Democratic State Rep. Marko Liias was one of the first candidates to announce for the 1st District position once incumbent Democratic Congressman Jay Inslee announced that he would give up the seat to run for governor.

Liias, who lives in Edmonds, also is the most likely of all candidates to stay in the 1st District.

Another candidate for the position is Democratic State Sen. Steve Hobbs. Hobbs’ Lake Stevens home is in the 2nd Congressional District, which stretches all the way to the Canadian border.

Could Hobbs end up in the 1st District?

Olympia-based Everett Herald politics writer Jerry Cornfield says that Hobbs is likely to end up in the 1st District.

The 2nd District will shrink, with the 1st District expanding into more of Snohomish County.

Cornfield reports that rumors have Lake Stevens moving to the 1st District.

Hobbs is a moderate Democrat who representss a swing legislative district in central Snohomish County and more often works closely with the District's Republican State Rep. Mike Hope than with liberal democratic State Rep. Hans Dunshee.

Other possible candidates are Republican James Watkins. who lost to Inslee in 2010, Democratic State Sen. Roger Goodman and former Democratic legislator Laura Ruderman. Watkins, Goodman and Ruderman all are from the Kirkland area, which could end up in the 8th District or the new 10th District.

“I think it's great voters will have a lot of choices,” Liias said of the crowded field.