Thread: Advocates of splitting California into six states gathering signatures

Advocates of splitting California into six states gathering signatures


Molly Kelley, 62, of Klamath River, holds up a State of Jefferson flag as she folds it inside the Klamath River Community Hall in California. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

HARRIET RYANcontact the reporter

Advocates for Six Californias, a plan to split the state up 6 ways, are holding a petition drive this weekend

Good day, future citizen of West California!

You may find yourself greeted thusly as you head into a supermarket or drugstore in Los Angeles on Saturday morning.

Advocates for Six Californias, a plan to split the Golden State into a half dozen separate states, are holding a petition drive this weekend to get their plan on the ballot in 2016.


Tom Knorr, holds a State of Jefferson flag in Corning, Calif. The idea of forming their own state has been a topic among local secession dreamers for more than a century in the state. (Terry Chea / Associated Press)

The idea is the brainchild of Timothy Draper, a venture capitalist from Menlo Park – or as he hopes to some day call it, the state of Silicon Valley. Draper has sunk $2 million into signature gathering for the proposal. He maintains it will break bureaucratic deadlock in Sacramento (proposed state of North California) and attract more business.

"California has become the worst managed state in the country," he told The Times this spring. "It just is too big and too ungovernable."


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Draper, a political independent, needs about 808,000 signatures by July 18 to get the measure on the ballot in two years. He has said he hassupport from the Oregon border (proposed state of Jefferson) to San Diego (South California), but the plan has been given almost no chance of success by some experts and ridiculed by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Anna Morris, spokeswoman for Six Californias, said in an e-mail that the group has collected “a significant amount of signatures and are hoping to get the remaining signatures we need this weekend.”

“For people who put our chances at zero, we say that we are dedicated to challenging the status quo and are hopeful that Six Californias will be the much needed refresh for state government,” she said.

Joe Rodota, the co-chair of OneCalifornia, an opposition group, downplayed the significance of getting signatures on a petition.

“This is just a process that pretty much any well-funded interest can pursue,” said Rodota, former cabinet secretary for Gov. Pete Wilson.

The real challenge, he said, is ballot approval and “it’s just very difficult to get a yes vote historically.”

Times political columnist George Skelton called Six Californias “crazy” and “really crackpot,” but he noted that attempts to break up the state have been around since its inception and can be highly diverting if never successful.

“Go ahead and put this thing on the ballot,” he wrote in April. “We could use some fun.”

harriet.ryan@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...621-story.html

This will go now where and accomplish absolutely nothing,

just like the Texas seceding from the union deal

and from 2009

http://www.alipac.us/f19/desperate-c...states-148447/


May. 21, 2009

Why the heck 6 states? I see that as a clear attempt for stronger liberal control of the House and Senate. I could see cutting it into 2-3 states but no more. But 2-3 states would leave 1, probably 2 strongly Conservative/Republican.

California, the most populous state in the United States and third largest in area, has been the subject of more than 220 proposals to divide it into multiple states^[1] including at least 27 serious proposals.^[2] In addition, there have been various calls for the restoration of the California Republic, which would entail secession from the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partiti..._in_California

Whats Cali's population though w/o Immigrants, illegal aliens, and anchor babies? Those sort of things are what should be looked at. US Citizens are meant to elect our leaders, and in doing so pick our laws. But if a state like Cali gets to split into many states when 1/2 the population or more don't have the legal right to vote or should of never been in the country in the first place it would doom the rest of us.

We really need the US Census to differentiate between Citizen, Legal Immigrant, and Illegal Alien. Representation should ONLY be split based on Citizens.

Originally Posted by ReformUSA2012

Whats Cali's population though w/o Immigrants, illegal aliens, and anchor babies? Those sort of things are what should be looked at. US Citizens are meant to elect our leaders, and in doing so pick our laws. But if a state like Cali gets to split into many states when 1/2 the population or more don't have the legal right to vote or should of never been in the country in the first place it would doom the rest of us.

We really need the US Census to differentiate between Citizen, Legal Immigrant, and Illegal Alien. Representation should ONLY be split based on Citizens.

Anchor babies are U.S. citizens under current Federal Laws.
They shouldn't be, but the are.
California has no say in that matter.
Legal immigrants have the ability to become U.S. citizens under Federal Law.
California has no say in that matter.
Federal laws count all people in the census.
California has no say in that matter.
It is the Federal Governments responsibility to control the border.
They do a very poor job of it.
The Federal Government says all kids must be given an education, at taxpayer expense.
No state can get out of it.
Federal laws say anchor babies are eligible for welfare, foodstamps , medicare , etc.
No state has a say in any of these matters.
Looks like the Federal Government is responsible for all of these problems.