A group of conservative lawmakers from east of the Cascades wants a task force to provide recommendations on how to divide Washington into two separate states. House Bill 1818 would create a task force “to determine the impacts” of dividing the state in two along the Cascade range. The bill cites heightened differences of “cultural and economic values” as the reason for exploring the split. The task force would consist of 10 members from different caucuses in the House and Senate and from the Governor’s Office. It would have to report its findings to the Legislature by the end of September this year, according to the bill.
… The notion of creating two states comes up just about every year in the Legislature and never gets much traction, but it’s symbolic of the frustration conservatives east of the Cascades regularly express with the way policy is decided at the state level. A Republican governor hasn’t been elected since 1980, local politicians regularly lament that King County “runs the state” and the local tea party groups don’t like the way Puget Sound Republicans meddled in the 4th District congressional race between Clint Didier and Dan Newhouse.
Full Article: Yakima Herald Republic |.