Our two states of mind

While it's generally agreed that no man is an island, the notion of being an independent state holds a certain appeal these days to Justin Patterson -- maybe not by himself, but with a collection of like-minded people.

"Sometimes, especially after the last election, you get the idea we really can't get along," the 31-year-old liberal said while sipping a cappuccino in a Seattle cafe. "Maybe we're fundamentally different from the Eastside and from Eastern Washington."

Ah, fundamentally different. In the world of division politics, these are the magic words, the phrase of resignation its practitioners shout simply to hear the echo. Urban vs. rural?

They feel your disenfranchisement, your threatened property rights. East vs. West? How dare condo-dwelling urbanites regulate farm water! Red vs. Blue? "He's not my president," proclaim Subaru bumpers along Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood.

"The main thing is that we have our problems on this side of the state," said Scott Frenger, 35, of Elk, a small town roughly 20 miles north of Spokane. "We would benefit from our own laws, our own government. The west dominates politics here."

Thus arose legislation designed to parcel, if not exactly boundaries, then opinion. Senate Joint Memorial 8009 requests that the U.S. government begin the process of establishing Eastern Washington as a separate, 51st state, divided at the Cascade Range.

In Olympia, Rep. Toby Nixon, R-Us, has introduced a bill to subdivide King County, D-Them, by creating one county for liberal Seattle and another, Cascade, for everyone else.

"Many of the voters in my district decided they that want a divorce from Seattle," Nixon said by way of explaining House Bill 2074. "I've received many concerns expressed in my (rural King County) district that they are dominated by Seattle on the King County Council."

The image of Seattle as a dominatrix isn't much of a stretch for most people. It tends to produce a large portion of Washington's governors. It's the center of gravity for the state's most populous county, a region that generates 40 percent of the state's taxes. Emerald City voters are the major reason that the state has two Democrats as U.S. senators.

So eastern factions, both county and state, want self-governance or at least a break, Nixon concluded. But his legislation won't produce one. Same for the two-state bill; neither bills' authors expect the measures to move at all, much like similar legislation in the past.

Want to find Freedom, Cedar or Olympic counties on a map? Better instead to check the legislative dustbin.

"Frankly, I don't expect it to get a hearing this year," said Nixon, whose 45th legislative district wraps around Woodinville, Duvall, Kirkland and Redmond. "If it gets a hearing, it most likely will be next year."

Experts on politics say this boundary-division legislation can serve a purpose anyway.

It has a populist appeal for starters, and it makes voters feel as if their political representative is one of them. Remember, analysts say, there are real value differences between east and west, between urban and rural. Or, more simply, no pol in Eastern Washington or east King County ever lost a race by bashing Seattle.

Jeska Sand, 22, feels the differences. She moved to Seattle from the Tri-Cities to attend school and escape eastern conservatives. "Politically, Seattle is more lively, and there's more people I can relate to," she said. "I'm a vegetarian so being in Seattle is nice because I can actually eat at the restaurants."

Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, no stranger to factional political fighting, said this style of division politics has a long-term cost along with its short-term benefit.

"If it plays at home, great," he said. "But the downside on border politics is that it creates division and that can makes things worse overall. The reality is that no one is going to create a 51st state. And carving up King into two separate counties isn't going to work.

"So what's the point?"

Tax revenue data from the state Department of Revenue indicates that both Eastern Washington and rural and suburban King County don't generate comparatively much in taxes as the areas they would lose.

Eastern Washington is 22 percent of the state's population but generates 18 percent of the taxes. Theoretical Cascade County might fare better, however, as Nixon wants to include virtually everything outside the Seattle city limits.

"(Cascade County) would be viable on its own," he said. "It would have 1.2 million people and extremely valuable property.

"But Eastern Washington as a state," he added, "that might not work."

It will if the "t" word is used, Eastern Washington's Frenger thinks. "Well, it definitely would put a burden on Eastern Washington financially to make its own state. I know that we would need to make up that loss somewhere. Taxes might have to be raised."

But, he said, it would be worth it. "We'd be on our own," he concluded. "That's what we need."

Still, Ceis said, that doesn't mean that every faction should get its own separate government. If that's the case, Broadmoor, Seattle's wealthy golf-and-gated neighborhood, should be its own city, he said; it had the city's only pro-Bush precinct last November.

"There's always going to be differences," he said. "That doesn't mean there has to be divisions."

But then, the notion gave the lifelong West Seattleite pause. Maybe he, too, could break away from Mayor Greg Nickels and establish his own town, a place with sensibilities like his own. "Maybe I could be mayor of Alki Beach," he said. "Return to my roots.

"I like that."

P-I reporter Phuong Le contributed to this report. P-I reporter Mike Lewis can be reached at 206-448-8140 or mikelewis@seattlepi.com

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