Thread: Northern Colorado Looks To Secede From Colorado

Northern Colorado Looks To Secede From Colorado

Added by Last Crusader on June 7, 2013 at 4:50pm


Counties in North, Northeastern Colorado and Western Nebraska are thinking of making a serious bid to form their own state. Should be interesting.


http://patriotaction.net/video/north...-from-colorado

Colorado counties mull forming new state, North Colorado

Published June 09, 2013
FoxNews.com


Jan. 7, 2011: This image shows the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. (AP)

GREELEY, COLO. – Officials in eight northern Colorado counties united in opposition to the state's new gun control laws and oil and gas regulations are reportedly considering forming a 51st U.S. state called North Colorado.

The Denver Post reports that a proposal to separate Weld, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma and Kit Carson counties from the rest of the state was hatched at a meeting of county commissioners last week.

Weld County commissioners Sean Conway, Mike Freeman and Doug Rademacher said they will conduct public meetings and decide whether to draft a ballot measure by Aug. 1., according to a report in The Greeley Tribune.

The U.S. Constitution requires that Legislatures must first approve any state that is to be created within its jurisdiction.

Commissioners said Thursday that failed legislative efforts to crack down on oil and gas, as well as increases in rural renewable energy standards were "the straws that broke the camel's back."

Conway told the Tribune that Weld County's main economic drivers, agriculture and energy, are under attack, even though those sectors contribute significantly to the state's economy. He said the county's return on its financial contributions to the state are minimal.

Commissioners are also concerned about the lack of funding for infrastructure and education and believe the split would allow them to leverage financial investments from energy companies in the region, the newspaper reported.

Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., whose district would be included in the split, said in a statement last week that he is sympathetic to the commissioners' concerns and doesn't blame them for wanting to form a new state, The Tribune reported.

"The people of rural Colorado are mad, and they have every right to be," Gardner said. "The governor and his Democrat colleagues in the statehouse have assaulted our way of life, and I don't blame these people one bit for feeling attacked and unrepresented by the leaders of our state."

Gov. John Hickenlooper's spokesman Eric Brown said in a statement obtained by the paper that "background checks on gun sales, increasing renewable energy and supporting responsible development of oil and gas are popular with rural and urban voters."

Click here for more from The Denver Post.

Click here for more from The Greeley Tribune.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...orth-colorado/

Will North Colorado Be The 51st State In The Union?

By Michael Snyder, on July 11th, 2013

There are ten counties in northern Colorado that are discussing plans to secede from the state of Colorado in order to form a new state that would be known as "North Colorado".

North Colorado would have a population of more than 300,000 people, and it would be the 42nd largest state in the country by land area. The county officials that are leading this movement say that a "collective mass" of issues has resulted in this desire to leave the state of Colorado for good.

In recent years, the Democratically-controlled state legislature has been pursuing new regulations on the oil and gas industries, it has imposed strict new renewable energy standards throughout the state and it has adopted new gun control measures that are highly unpopular with rural voters.

The desire to be independent of the meddling bureaucrats in the state capital is certainly a commendable goal, but there are some obstacles that will make establishing a new state very difficult.

Hopefully the challenges will not cause those pursuing this new state to lose heart.

Recently, representatives from ten Colorado counties held a meeting in the town of Akron to map out the boundaries for the new state...

Ten counties, including Weld and Morgan, started talking about seceding last month. Now some people Lincoln and Cheyenne counties say they want to join a new state they’d call “North Colorado.”

Organizers of the secession effort say their interests are not being represented at the state Capitol. Representatives from the 10 counties held a meeting on Monday in the town of Akron in Weld County to begin mapping the boundaries for the new state they say will represent the interests of rural Colorado.

Agriculture and the oil and gas industries would dominate this new state. In fact, right now about 80 percent of the oil and gas revenue in the state of Colorado comes from the counties that are talking about seceding...

“I say 80 percent of the oil and gas revenue in the state of Colorado is coming out of northeastern Colorado – Weld, Yuma County, and some of other counties,” Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway said. “Seventy percent of the K-12 funding is coming off the state lands in Weld County alone. I’m telling you we are economic drivers.”

So the state of Colorado may not be very eager to see those counties leave.

But water rights may be an even bigger issue. Four of the five counties that do the most farming in Colorado would become part of North Colorado. But the farmers in those counties are heavily dependent on the water rights that they rent from cities that would not be a part of North Colorado.

A new state could make getting the water that those farmers need much more difficult. The following comes from a Huffington Post article...

"A water right is the livelihood of many, many people in northeast Colorado ... and if you put the security of that right at risk at all -- as starting a brand new state might do -- that could be enough to convince people they don't want to go forward with this (new state)," said James Witwer, a water attorney in Denver, who represents various municipalities and agricultural water users in northeast Colorado. "It would be problematic and risky."

Eight major U.S. rivers flow from Colorado's mountains and into surrounding states and, because of that, Colorado has agreements in place with its neighbors -- compacts that require certain amounts of water to flow across state lines.

Such an agreement would have to be made between Colorado and North Colorado.

There are also significant political issues that make a new state a long shot.

Even if the voters approve seceding from the state of Colorado, the new state must also be approved by the Colorado General Assembly and the U.S. Congress.

And getting approval from Congress seems extremely unlikely.

First of all, Democrats in Congress would be fundamentally opposed to this new state for the same reason that Republicans won't let Washington D.C. become a state. Democrats would not want to allow two new Republican senators from the state of North Colorado to shift the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.

Republicans may not like the idea of North Colorado either, because it could significantly hurt the Republicans in future presidential elections. Right now, Colorado is considered to be a swing state. If North Colorado was formed, the Republicans would always win that state, but Democrats would always take the much larger state of Colorado. It would shift electoral college math even more in favor of the Democrats.

So it is definitely a long shot that we will ever see the state of North Colorado become the 51st state in the Union.

But without a doubt there are a lot of people that are very passionate about the idea. In fact, those organizing this movement say that a few more Colorado counties may join and that even a couple of counties in neighboring Kansas have expressed interest.

And organizers hope to have something on the ballot this November possibly.

It will be very interesting to watch and see what happens. No new state has been created out of an old state since West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1863. And of course that was during the Civil War.

According to the New York Daily News, there have been lots of attempts to create new states out of old ones in U.S. history, but the vast majority of them have ended up failing...

This process has been successfully used in the past to create five new states — Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maine and West Virginia, according to theNational Constitution Center.

But the road to statehood is mostly littered with failures. There have been more than seventy-five unsuccessful attempts at statehood, including the fantasy states of Forgottonia, Texlahoma, Nickajack, Absaroka, and Long Island.

The odds are definitely against North Colorado.

But they should be applauded for stepping up and taking action. You will never accomplish anything if you just sit on your sofa eating chips and watching television all the time.

So what do you think about the possibility of a 51st state called North Colorado? Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below...



Be Sociable, Share!

July 11th, 2013 | Tags: Gun Control, Michael T. Snyder, New State,North Colorado, Oil And Gas, Renewable Energy, Rural Voters, The 51st State | Category: Commentary

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...e-in-the-union

Northern Colorado wants to secede from Colorado


Colorado's flag (Tumblr)

Dylan Stableford 20 hours ago
Yahoo! News PoliticsColorado

Will North Colorado become America's 51st state?

That's what some residents in the Centennial State are pushing for. Representatives from eight northern counties convened Monday, CBS Denver reports, to "begin mapping the boundaries for the new state they say will represent the interests of rural Colorado."

The secession movement stems from "a growing urban-rural divide," with state lawmakers in Denver passing sweeping gun control legislation and calling for more renewable energy and less oil and gas production—a big part of northern Colorado's economy.

“Northern and Northeastern Colorado and our voices are being ignored in the legislative process this year, and our very way of life is under attack,” Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway told Coloradoan.com.

“This is not a stunt. This is a very serious deliberative discussion that’s going on,” Conway told CBS Denver. “There’s a real feeling that a lot of folks who come from the urban areas don’t appreciate the contribution that many Coloradans contribute.”

Officials from Weld, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma and Kit Carson counties were involved in the discussions, Conway said, adding that two counties in Nebraska are interested in joining the new state.

“We need to figure out way to re-enfranchise the people who feel politically disenfranchised now and ignored,” he said.

Conway and his coalition are hoping to put the question of secession to voters in November through a ballot referendum.

Of course, seceding isn't that easy. West Virginia was the last to state to do it, breaking free from Virginia during the Civil War in 1863—or 14 years before Colorado was admitted to the Union. To form a new state, approval would be needed from voters, the Colorado General Assembly and U.S. Congress.

The movement does appear to have at least one supporter in Washington.

“The people of rural Colorado are mad, and they have every right to be,” U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, a Republican from Yuma, Colo., told Denver's 9 News last month. “The governor and his Democrat colleagues in the statehouse have assaulted our way of life, and I don’t blame people one bit for feeling attacked and unrepresented by the leaders in our state.”

Feeling disenfranchised, one could argue, is part of being American. Residents from more than 30 states, including Colorado and Texas, filed petitions to secede in the wake of President Barack Obama's reelection in November. But citizens in Austin, Texas, filed a counter petition to allow the city to "peacefully" secede from Texas and remain a part of the United States.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/nor...174432609.html

Effort To Create New State Called ‘North Colorado’ Grows

July 9, 2013 11:45 PM

(credit: CBS)

AKRON, Colo. (CBS4) – There’s a growing effort to create a 51st state out of parts of northeast Colorado.

Ten counties, including Weld and Morgan, started talking about seceding last month. Now some people Lincoln and Cheyenne counties say they want to join a new state they’d call “North Colorado.”

Organizers of the secession effort say their interests are not being represented at the state Capitol. Representatives from the 10 counties held a meeting on Monday in the town of Akron in Washington County to begin mapping the boundaries for the new state they say will represent the interests of rural Colorado.

Video at the Page Link:http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/07/0...olorado-grows/

The secessionist movement is the result of a growing urban-rural divide, which was exacerbated after this year’s legislation session where lawmakers raised renewable energy standards for rural electric co-ops, floated bills increasing regulations on oil and gas, and passed sweeping gun control.

The creation of a new state comes with risks. A new state would have to draw up new water agreements which are critical to agriculture and agriculture uses 85 percent of Colorado’s water. Supporters say it also comes with new opportunities.

“I say 80 percent of the oil and gas revenue in the state of Colorado is coming out of northeastern Colorado – Weld, Yuma County, and some of other counties,” Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway said. “Seventy percent of the K-12 funding is coming off the state lands in Weld County alone. I’m telling you we are economic drivers.”

But not everyone is in favor of the plan.

“I don’t want be in a 51st state. I don’t want any part of their fracking that they’re doing in Weld County,” Washington County resident Steve Frey said.

County commissioners also discussed a backup plan should breaking away from the state not prove feasible. It involves changing the makeup of the state Senate. Rather than the current 35 Senate districts, each of the 64 counties would have its own senator.

“We need to figure out a way to re-enfranchise the people who feel politically disenfranchised now and ignored,” Conway said.

None of it will be easy. To change the Senate takes a ballot initiative. To form a new state, approval is needed from not only voters but the Colorado General Assembly and U.S. Congress.

In addition, organizers say three other Colorado counties and two in Kansas have said they may join the secession movement. They hope to put the idea to voters as early as this November.

West Virginia was the last state to have been successfully created from parts of an already existing state in 1863 when it seceded from Virginia. Prior to that three other states were created from an existing state. They are as follows:
- Maine (from Massachusetts),
- Kentucky (from Virginia)
- Vermont (from New York and New Hampshire)

RELATED: Rural Voters to Make 2014 Election Interesting


http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/07/0...olorado-grows/

Rural Colorado Residents Fed Up With Liberal Legislature Make Push For Secession

August 21, 2013 by Sam Rolley

If you are a member of the conservative minority in a State notorious for liberal politics, you probably have a great deal in common with the residents of Weld County, Colo., a community taking radical steps to attempt to distance itself from State policies antithetical to conservatism.
The Weld County Commission, expressing concern that agriculture, oil and gas, and Constitutional rights are under attack from the Colorado State Legislature, have decided to attempt something that hasn’t been done since West Virginia was born at the height of the Civil War in 1863.
It has issued a proposal asking local voters to decide:

“Shall the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, in concert with the county commissioners of other Colorado counties, pursue becoming the 51st state of the United States of America?”

Currently, four northern Colorado counties, including Weld, Sedgwick, Yuma and Cheyenne, have decided to let voters decide if the State will split, forming a new State called North Colorado. Another seven counties are seriously considering following suit.
Lawmakers in the Colorado counties who support secession from the State say the need for a split stems from the State government’s mishandling and misunderstanding of rural issues in the Centennial State.
“Last year we were in the midst of a drought. We also were having horrible fires in our mountain areas. The Governor declared a state of emergency for the fires and was able to use the high mountain reservoirs, the water out of the high mountain reservoirs to help put out the fires…We asked him to declare a drought and a statewide emergency for here in Weld County…so that we could turn on the wells and take that water out of the, the same water, only it’s an underground reservoir, and use it for the drought. We were told no,” Weld County District 3 Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer said, referencing one grievance her local government has with the State leadership.
Seventy Weld County residents who attended a July 29 meeting to discuss the possibility of forming a new State for rural Coloradoans also expressed opposition to the State Legislature’s gun control measures, renewable energy initiatives in rural areas, expanded regulation of oil and gas production, and the reduction of “cruel treatment” of livestock.
“We’re not pulling away from Colorado, Colorado is pulling away from us,” Keenesburg resident Bruce Sparrow told The Denver Post after that meeting.
Liberal Colorado residents have mercilessly mocked the conservative effort, suggesting that the new State be called “Weldistan,” “Tancredonia” or “Fracktopia.”
One commentary on the blog ColoradoPols said of the plan:

Call us quaint, but we’re shocked to see elected county commissioners seriously talking about such a patently ridiculous idea. Even in the case of Weld County commissioners, it’s an escalation of a series of increasingly politically far-out positions, after already facing controversy over their decision to stop offering emergency contraceptives at county health clinics. Weld County’s Sheriff John Cooke, as we’ve noted in this space, has embraced undeniably extreme positions on guns, the very issue upsetting the commissioners–such as repealing the post-Columbine Amendment 22 gun show background check law, and even repealing all instant federal background checks for gun sales. There seems to be a real breakdown of rationality in Weld County, among officials who wield considerable power. It’s embarrassing, but also kind of fascinating to watch.

For the idea of a 51^st State bearing the name North Colorado to become reality, proponents will have to endure an uphill battle. In order for the residents to succeed and successfully form a new State, they will have to first win the support of Colorado voters as well as the blessings of both the Colorado General Assembly and the United States Congress.

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Liberty News, Staff Reports

http://personalliberty.com/2013/08/2...for-secession/

This flies in the face of globalism, which is what controls the governing body that would approve it. Namely the U.S. Congress ..