Good point.Before an elected official goes editorializing, understand all the facts or your entire rant bears no merit. And surely you cannot ignore the success that MAX light rail has been for the Portland area (save for the power meltdown about a month ago), and that the Yellow Line was built almost right to the state line, so it should be a no-brainer that an extension over the new bridge has to be an economic boon to your district.
I have sometimes thought that Senator Benton(R-Clark County) has a bias against anything urban, but not just Portland, but also Seattle. Had 2 Democrats(1 from a rural county, and another from the Suburban Crescent of the East Shore of Lake Washington) not caucused with the Republicans, the Senate Majority Leader would be Senator Ed Murray, who represents possible the most urban district in the state, the 43rd, Capital Hill and the U-District. The way we gerrymander, I believe has had the State Senate hovering around a tie for a decade or two. We have 2 from each party on a commission, 3 votes are needed to send the plan to the legislature for a binding up or down vote. State Senator Benton, even opposes High Occupancy Vehicles lanes on I-5 within Seattle, not just on I-5 in his district. This will heat up a little with the events in Skagit County, but the Special Session in Olympia may get more intriguing, as any package in the State Senate that includes more funding options(and that is another sticking point), could come down to the Lt. Governor having to exercise his rarely used constitutional duties, as the State Senate is tied, there is a vacancy leaving it 24 for the majority caucus, 24 from the Democratic Caucus. I don't know where Lt. Governor Brad Owen stands on light rail, he is a Conservative Democrat from Tacoma. Oops, went too far OT with the internal dynamics going on in the Legislative Building(the official name for the Capitol) in Olympia.
25 years of MAX Light Rail, and the Steel Bridge's age itself ought to prove that.Furthermore, why does the Senator make the assumption that the new bridge cannot support light rail if it has a lift? Again take a look at Portland's Steel Bridge, a lift bridge which has four MAX light rail lines, Amtrak, freight trains, and auto traffic. So the Columbia River Crossing could have a lift and still host the Yellow Line extension.
