NEW BID TO MAKE CITY 51ST STATE (NYC)

New York Post ^ | January 18, 2005 | STEPHANIE GASKELL

[nickcarraway]

Should New York City become the 51st state?

A bill that would create a commission to study whether the city should secede from New York state will get another hearing soon — after sitting in the City Council for nearly two years

The bill was introduced on Feb. 26, 2003. A hearing was held shortly after, but no action has been taken on the bill since then.

"I expected delays and opposition when we got to the state level, but I never thought it would be held up for two years trying to get out of a City Council committee," said Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens), who introduced the bill.

[Buck W.]

"LI would be split. Suffolk county goes blue, Nassau county goes red."

I would have guessed the other way around: Nassau would be blue due to proximity to NYC.

[Verginius Rufus]

Why New Columbia? Where's Old Columbia? Why not just Columbia?

[mewzilla]

Thanks! Talk about a pic being worth a thousand words. You
know it would be interesting to see where the Upstate metro areas would go if given a choice. Maybe someone will
do a poll...

[okie01]

Transparant attempt by liberals to gain two more Democratic Senators.

More likely would result in two more GOP senators. Upstate NY is currently unrepresented in the Senate.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Why New Columbia? Where's Old Columbia? Why not just Columbia?"

---

Proponents of DC statehood have called their proposed state "New Columbia" since at least the 1970s. That's why I picked the name--we would definitely need the DC statehood mafia to agree for the plan to pass.

[AuH2ORepublican]

If NYC formed its own state (let's call it Gotham), it would probably include not only the 5 boroughs, but also Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island and Westchester County just north of the Bronx, which would give the new state a suburban tax base. If those counties were removed from New York State, Kerry would have carried what remained of the state (let's call it Upstate) by exactly 336 votes in 2004. Of course, if Upstate was its own state, it would have been targeted by both parrties instead of being entirely ignored as it was in 2004, and who knows how the presidential vote would have turned out.

And if Hudson, Essex, Union, Middlesex, Mercer, Burlington and Camden Counties from NJ and added them to Gotham, along with Philadelphia and Delaware Counties from PA and New Castle County from DE, I guess we'd have to change Gotham's name to Megalopolis, and it would allow us to do the following:

(1) Make PA a comfortably GOP state that Bush would have carried by over 300,000 votes in 2004;

(2) Take Morris, Bergen, Passaic, Summerset, Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex Counties from NJ and add them to Upstate, which would allow Bush to have carried the new combined state by 50,000 votes;

(3) Combine Staten Island with the NJ counties of Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem and Gloucester to create a quite Republican State of New Jersey;

and

(4) Take Kent and Sussex Counties from Delaware and add them to the new State off Maryland (which would have had Montgomery and Prince George's Counties excised and placed within the new state of New Columbia, as I described in post #131 above), which would have allowed Bush to carry the new State of Maryland by 65,000 votes.

The states of Megalopolis and New Columbia would, of course, each have 2 Democrat Senators (can you imagine Hillary, Schumer, Lautenberg, Corzine, Biden and Carper all fighting over the 2 Senate slots in Megalopolis?), but each of the four states of PA, MD, NJ and Upstate/North Jersey would almost certainly elect 2 Republican Senators. The region would go from having 8 Democrat Senators and only 2 GOP Senators (both from the tough-to-defend state of PA) to having 4 Democrat Senators and 8 GOP Senators. The GOP advantage in the Senate would go from 55-44-1 to a nearly filibuster-proof 61-40-1.

And in the Electoral College, a region that gave Kerry an 83-0 advantage over Bush would now give Kerry just 38 electoral votes (30 in Megalopolis and 8 in New Columbia), while Bush would receive 45 electotal votes (in addition, Bush would have carried VA quite handily, although it would have 11 instead of 13 EVs). Nationally, Bush would have received 329 Electoral Votes instead of 286.

I say we make this modest proposal to Congress and try to get it approved in time for the 2006 elections. : )

[AuH2ORepublican]

Excellent analysis. You may find my posts # 131 and 168 interesting.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Texas splits to 5 states (as was left on the table when it joined the US)"

---

For a brief discussion on how to create 4 GOP states out of Texas, see:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1194496/posts?page=116#116

[Verginius Rufus]

I remember hearing Jesse Jackson use the term New Columbia, but didn't know it went back to the 1970s. I still don't think that the name makes sense...and also don't favor statehood for the district.

[Verginius Rufus]

Suffolk County could be given to Connecticut (a lot of the early colonial settlers of Long Island were New Englanders anyway, so it would have made sense for Long Island or at least the eastern part of it to be part of Connecticut all along). That wouldn't tip CT into the Republican column but might make it a little more competitive.

[Clintonfatigued]

Wonderful idea, if you also think that D.C. should be granted statehood. Does anyone remember when NYC had to be bailed out by the federal government?

The only silver lining of such a senario is that Hitlery will have to move again.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Wonderful idea, if you also think that D.C. should be granted statehood."

---

While I don't think that DC should be a state by itself, I do think that its residents should have the right to vote for Senators and Representatives just like all other Americans. Thus, the two best options would be (i) giving DC back to Maryland (which would make MD hopelessly Democratic) or (ii) creating a State of New Columbia that includes DC and the suburban counties that it borders. For many reasons, I support the second option.


"The only silver lining of such a senario is that Hitlery will have to move again."

---

Actually, I included Westchester County in the same state as NYC, so Hillary wouldn't have to move. But if a State of Megalopolis is created, she may have to face Corzine and Biden in a Senate primary!

[from occupied ga]

If it's that simple, then why doesn't the rest of the country just finish the job and move the rest of it out of New York too

It has been going on for some time as a gradual process. The rest of the country is growing in jobs and population while the national socialist police states in the Northeast have been shrinking. For example, Charlotte, NC is developing into a major banking center.

[Clintonfatigued]

"Whose votes would be cancelled by the two Republican Senators from Upstate"

That's an interesting theory, but Upstate New York is not reliably Republican. Gore won upstate by 52% to 44% in 2000, and Kerry ran even there in 2004. Upstate's Congressmen include Maurice Hinchley, Louise Slaughter, and Nita Lowey.

[JerseyHighlander]

There were a series of population weighted county maps that were even on this forum just after the election.


http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1279328/posts?q=1&&page=51

[Minion]

I live in Albany, I am praying and would like to help these idiots in anyway to make NYC the 51st state. Albany would flourish if this was to happen. Seeing that we pay for all of their mistakes, and that they manage to silence upstate voters at every election.

Please Please PLEASE let this happen god.