Two immediate winners have emerged from this morning's US Congressional District redistricting proposal: Communities of color and Denny Heck.

Former Republican US Sen. Slade Gorton and former Seattle Deputy Mayor, Democrat Tim Ceis, two of the four redistricting commissioners, presented a proposal this morning revising Washington State's US Congressional map to both 1) include an additional district, the 10th, to account for Washington's population growth, and 2) re-mapping the existing districts.

The new 10th District is centered largely in Thurston County, taking in Olympia and Shelton—making Democrat Denny Heck today's big winner. Heck, who's  from Olympia, had to run in the 3rd Congressional District—Vancouver to Olympia—in 2010, and lost the swing turf battle to Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler. By jettisoning the liberal Olympia area from the 3rd and giving the area its own district, the commission made Heck, the founder of TVW and former chief of staff to ex-Governor Booth Gardner, the frontrunner in a new district, as opposed to a challenger going for a rematch in the swing 3rd.

Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz already released a statement about this morning's news, namechecking Heck.

The newly drawn 10^th District provides Democrats our best opportunity to send a true middle class champion to Congress.  We are already on our way with Denny Heck, who will stand up and fight for families, fairness and economic opportunity.

The proposal also made history with the creation of Washington State's first majority-minority district: The re-drawn 9th Congressional District, stretching from Olympia up through South King County—including Federal Way, Puyallup, and Renton. Democratic US Rep. Adam Smith is the current incumbent.

The Win/Win Network had organized all year, testifying at commission meetings, to get a majority-minority district, though they also wanted one that came without an incumbent. African American lobbyist Nate Miles spoke on behalf of Win/Win at today's hearing and said of Smith that Win/Win hadn't been pushing for a majority-minority district to ensure that a person of color would be elected, but that whoever represented the district would have to "fight to win our support." He said he was confident that Smith would do that.

The crew of Democratic hopefuls lining up to run for US Rep. Jay Inslee's open seat in the 1st (Inslee is running for governor) got a look at the revamped turf today too. As Democratic commissioner Ceis explained it, the district is more evenly split along partisan lines. It's got the liberal Microsoft suburbs and then some—adding wealthy blue spots such as Medina today. However, it stretches all the way north to Whatcom County, adding rural Republican turf. (Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in the neighboring 8th District used to have more of the Microsoft burbs, but traded it out for more Republican turf stretching east of the Cascades.)

All the announced Democrats running for Inslee's seat are still in the district except state Rep. Marko Liias (D-21, Edmonds), who now finds himself in US Rep. Jim McDermott's redrawn district, the liberal 7th—a  Seattle district, now without south Seattle, but with Liias' northern burbs.)

Former Reichert opponent, wealthy Democrat Suzan DelBene, now the head of the state department of revenue, has not declared yet , but is now living in the newly drawn 1st instead of in Reichert's 8th.

The commission, made up of four voting members split along party lines including Ceis and Gorton, plus a non-voting chair, proposed a new state legislative district map earlier this month for Western Washington. They are still working on a new map for eastern Washington, which they will present later this week.

After the commission votes to approve the maps—the proposals require three yes votes to pass—the legislature has 30 days to make any changes (which requires a two-thirds vote); otherwise the plan takes effect. The governor cannot veto.