None of the city's opponents in the debate over 520—the governor and chairs of the transportation committees in the state house and senate—live in Seattle. Why can't we get a leg up in the biggest transportation fights of the decade?

Theoretically, the Seattle delegation represents the largest and most powerful political block in the Legislature, and yet they’re either incapable of working together that way, or unwilling to do so out of fear of reinforcing the stereotype that Seattle dominates the state.

Well I’ve got news for you: Seattle should dominate the state! This is where the largest chunk of voters live, and this is where an even larger chunk of the wealth (i.e. tax base) resides. Unlike the goddamn U.S. Senate, we elect all our legislators by the person, not the square mile, and so it’s only fair that our population-dense city gets a disproportionate share of state spending and power.

And yet at a time when two major transportation projects threaten to reshape the city for the next half century or more, we can’t even manage to put one of the transportation committees in the hands of a Seattle legislator. We’re pathetic.

Seriously, many of the biggest transportation issues in the state—the downtown tunnel, 520 bridge, I-5 rebuild—are in Seattle, and we're at the whims of Mercer Island, Medina, and Olympia.