Good thing we're ruled by people, not by land. Oh wait, there's still the US Senate, wherein 11% of the population can keep the other 89% from doing anything.

"Slightly-less-liberal neighbor to the south" is far from how I would describe Pierce County.

Rural areas always hate the idea of one-person-one-vote

Why can't Eastern Washington secede and form it's own State?

Then they can pay for their own roads (*cough* broke *cough*) and we can run transit and charge them for access to the ports?

That said, if the Gov doesn't back down soon on the Tunnel the lower turnout is going to bite the Dems in the ass.

@5: If we do that, they get two new Senators with hard R's next to their names.

It would be better to cede Western Washington to Idaho than to cut them off because otherwise there would be two more Republican senate seats.

@6 yeah, but they'll be really really stupid. And countermanded by the State of Seattle's two US Senators and two Congress members.

Eastern Washington isn't as awful & conservative as you all make it out to be - even the most conservative counties tend to break closer to 50-50 in elections for the Senators, Governor & President. It also isn't as backwards and uneducated as a lot of you seem to think (exceptions may include Ferry and Pend Oreille counties).

The city is a tyranny.

It is a means of enslaving low cost labor with high priced rents.

Most would benefit from moving Eastward and South to Centralia, where $100,000 houses are available and can be supported with $35,000 jobs.

The city is a tyranny.

The city is obsolete.

@10 oh stop whining you inefficient non-city person.

Maybe we could rename Eastern Washington to Afghanistan and then our troops could come home?

Let me get this - Capitol Hill (about 35,000 people) is larger than Grant or Franklin counties. Ah, I love democracy.

How is Kitsap County on the I-5 corridor?

I still think we should carpet bomb Eastern Washington. Let's start with WSU!!!

Ire? I don't understand ...

And you guys are mean to eastern Washington. I must assume you're jealous about the wine situation.

@10 I encourage everyone who thinks Centralia would be a great place to live to move there immediately. We'll all be happier. Except that Centralians, who'll hate all the carpetbaggers.

Sheesh. Come on, there seriously are worse places than EWA out in the world. Like eastern Oregon. Or southern Idaho. Or Utah. Or all of the Gulf Coast. Like soupytwist said, it's hardly crawling with backward hillbillies. If anything, I've probably run across far more close-minded, downright ig'nant, "redneck" types on this side of the mountains than anywhere in the Columbia Basin. Plus we are incredibly lucky to live in a state with such diverse natural beauty and resources.

And it's interesting to see everyone here so eager to toss basic civic concepts out the window, such as protection of the minority against the tyranny of the majority, when it suits their needs. Isn't that how the Teabaggers work? We must keep those kinds of attitudes in check while concurrently protecting the right to express them.

@17, thank you.

Interestingly, Kent, which is part of King County, has a population of over 100,000 which accounts for nearly 1/10th of the population of the county.

http://www.ci.kent.wa.us/annexation/

Yet, Kent, as every reader of these comments should now know, is hardly high density. So, it's specious to lump all of King County together as some urbist co-op, when the lifestyles are as varied as Donny and Marie (a little bit county, a little bit rock n' roll).

@16: I have often thought of moving to centralia every time I drive down to Portland and see the prefab, 3 bedroom homes being advertised for $48,000.

I wish we had high speed rail as it would make the commute as long as a Sounder ride from Sumner.

@17, shut up Locutus!

I'd note that last year's Eyman initiative failed in most of Eastern Washington, too. We're conservative, but not insane.

Well, mostly not insane:

http://www.eastwa51ststate.com/

This is interesting too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Cities,…

As of April 1, 2010, the Washington State Office of Financial Management, Forecasting Division, estimated the population of the bi-county metropolitan area at 248,400. The population of the metropolitan area was 235,841 at the 2008 Census estimates.[1] If the Tri-Cities were a single city, it would be the fourth largest city in the state of Washington, behind Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma.