Eastern Washington is threatening to split from state
Dec 7, 2016, 11:40 AM | Updated: 11:42 am
Two state representatives from Eastern Washington want to form a new state called "Liberty." (AP)
(AP)
Eastern Washington is threatening to split with the rest of the state.
This happens from time to time. Typically, Western Washington’s legislators can talk some sense into our friends seeing red. But this time there’s a new edge to the threat: Eastern Washington wants to drop our name altogether and call itself the state of “Liberty.”
KXLY TV reports Matt Shea and Bob McCaslin are co-sponsoring legislation to form a new state.
One resident says the idea makes sense because political opinion on either side of the state is “drastically different.”
Related: The likelihood of California, Oregon and Washington seceding
Shea has a similar sentiment, according to KXLY. He says the “cultures and lifestyles” are just too different.
In an unscientific Facebook poll, KXLY found that the vast majority of their followers support the idea of Eastern Washington becoming its own state. The interviews from the streets were more split.
Eastern Washington isn’t unique, though. Every so often Oregon has a similar dust-up with the east threatening to split from the west and form its own independent state.
And recently, a group in California residents launched their own campaign to take a bid to become independent a step further and leave the United States. The “Yes California Independence Campaign” submitted a proposed ballot measure to the state attorney general’s office= and hope to start gathering signatures so Californians can vote on secession in 2018.
If Eastern Washington’s bill is to be taken seriously, it would need to show a majority of Washington residents favor it. Voter approval would be expensive and take time.
Political Science Associate Professor at Gonzaga University told KXLY that forming a new state would take years and have little opposition.
Perhaps a cheaper route might be couple’s therapy.
