Mulliken leads charge for 51st state

11 state senators to ask Congress to consider creating "East Washington" state

OLYMPIA — State Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Ephrata, has signed a joint memorial asking Congress to consider creating a 51st state, which would be named "East Washington."

Mulliken is one of 11 state senators, 10 Republican and one Democrat, who are sponsoring this bill, which is scheduled for a hearing next Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the state Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee.

Mulliken said that while this is not a new idea, the past decade has revealed the disparities, social, economic and electoral, between the two sides of the Cascade Mountains.

"Our political differences have been getting stronger and stronger, and there is a momentum now among people who feel under-represented politically," she said. "This is the time."

The differences between the eastern and western side of the state have become such that it has reached a boiling point after this last election cycle, Mulliken added. "The conservative, rural part (of the state) has just had enough.

"People feel like this state is run by Seattle and five counties in Western Washington," she said, encouraging anyone who wants to come and testify at the hearing.

The new state would have the same northern, eastern and southern borders of the existing state, but its western border would follow "the crest of the Cascade Mountains and the western borders of Okanogan, Chelan, Kittitas, Yakima and Klickitat counties," reads the bill, called Senate Joint Memorial 8009.

Mulliken said several cities would have a chance of becoming the capital of the new state, including Moses Lake, favored by its location in the geographical center of the new state. Ellensburg, Spokane, Yakima and other larger communities may also be considered, she said.

After Tuesday's hearing, if the committee chairman decides that the testimony is compelling enough, he would allow it to go to a vote out of committee and on to the full senate floor. If it passes, then it would go on to Congress.

The memorial does not make or change existing law, Mulliken explained, it just asks Congress to begin process of approving a new state.

"It may not happen in my lifetime," she said. It's a process and a discussion that needs to happen."

Regarding the nature of the bill, Mulliken said that it was bipartisan, with Sen. Adam Kline signing on as a co-sponsor it.

Kline, a Democrat from King County likes his county the way it is, and "we (Republicans) hold up their agenda often times. I don't know why he signed."

A spokesperson from Kline's office declined to comment on the bill.