In fact, I'd argue that having Senate actually decreases the power of any populous place. Huh? By your theory, no municipalities can be merged, as each is clearly distinct in terms of individual tax burden. I'm not sure about this, but I'd hedge that Granite has the highest taxes already? Exactly why I would not support bringing in an area like Venice that would place a higher tax burden on GC residents to provide services for an area without the tax base to pay their own way. Kirk won because his opponent was a joke but when you look at the Governor's race my point is much more clear. When I stated that I saw Chi-town as the poster child for government overreach I was referring to policies like their hand gun ban that the Supreme Court struck down as Unconstitutional and yet "Da Mayor" is still trying to work around. You are right on Costello, people around here love him, I can't for the life of me understand why, but they do. It would have helped if his opponent was stronger though.