Oregon Ping
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Posted on 04/27/2008 11:53:58 AM PDT by kingattax
PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — A small group of people from Hood River are interesting in making Eastern Oregon its own state.
Consultant Paul Koch, 69, his partner Ernie DeRocher and DeRocher's wife, Rita Swyers, both 82, are pushing the effort. Koch said people in Eastern Oregon are fed up with how Salem has treated them.
If they got their wish, the stateline would stretch from east of the Cascade Mountains to the Idaho border.
Koch has done consulting and strategic planning work for Milton-Freewater, Baker City, the Umatilla County Special Library District and Blue Mountain Community College.
He said during his travels around Eastern Oregon in recent years, he and his partner heard a steady theme of how the western part of the state gets all the benefits.
"We started asking people, 'Gee, why don't we start our own state?'" Koch said.
Some people dismissed the notion, Koch said, but others were all for it.
Koch has developed idea papers and an action plan on creating the new state, and he, DeRocher and Swyers created a list of about 140 people to contact about the idea.
They say some people laughed it off at first, but their tunes changed when they heard they were serious enough to hold public meetings about adding a new star to the U.S. flag. Then, Koch said, people wanted to attend.
The first meeting is being held soon and the group will give an overview of the reasons why Eastern Oregon should be a separate state, discuss how it might operate and consider what the risks could be.
The U.S. Constitution allows for the creation of a new state from an exiting state with the approval of the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress.
Although Koch has done quite a lot of work on this idea, he admits he doesn't have all of the answers, particularly when it comes to the economy and funding for a new state.
"I honestly don't have a clue," he said. "However, in talking to people about this, we're thinking about using some new techniques, new approaches ... and having a very small, centralized state government and relying on cities and counties to deliver most of the services."
He also said he doesn't know which city would serve as the capital.
Did they get the best part in there ~ trade Western Oregon to Canada for Alberta?
Sounds like a great idea for Illinos; South Illinois being everything outside of Chicago.
Actually western Oregon’s not so bad. We would be in great shape if we could just find some way to give Portland and its suburbs to Washington. Once we did that the rest of the state (with the exception of Eugene) would be conservative. And we could easily beat Eugene. The problem is that Portland controls Oregon politics in the same way the New York City and Chicago control New York State and illinois respectively.
They have been talking that way about CA for years.
But then who will pay for Mayor Daley's expensive park building habit?
Millennium Parks don't just build themselves, you know.
There's a loser right there. The whole idea is to separate yourself from the Democrat parasite nests.
...except that Seattle already screws it up for the rest of us in PRWA
chicago ? the sanctuary city ?
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Isn’t that called Idaho?
What would make even more sense would be to combine Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington into a single state extending from California to Canada.
Guess he needs to learn some Espanol, so he can communicate that need to his new guests.
actually, thats not a bad idea
If I recall correctly, some years ago there was a movement some years ago to create a new state composed of eastern Oregon and eastern Washington. Like other such proposals (at least recent ones), it went nowhere.
Maybe we should reverse the process, and return newer states to their previous owners. Tennessee, for example, was once part of North Carolina. In fact, early Royal charters proclaimed that Carolina (prior to its division into Upper Carolina and Baja Carolina) extended to "the South Seas," otherwise known as the Pacific Ocean.
Easterners in WA State been trying to split WA in two states for decades but to no avail. Split the state from north to south along the Cascade Mtn range. Eastern Washingtonians are sick and tired of the west side dominating politics with its liberal leftist demoncRAT bent. Politicians in Olympia, another liberal leftists demoncRAT city, refused repeatedly.
Exactamente - The gang-ridden city that makes the otherwise red state blue.
A familiar strain of "everything goes to Seattle" when it comes to tax dollars.
You have a good point. My problem with letting Eastern Oregon go is rather selfish. I grew up in a rural portion of Western Oregon just north of Salem. So, I would like to get rid of some of the liberal parts of Oregon (Mainly Portland - I think we could keep Eugene and Ashland because we could outvote them). I don’t want to give up the conservative parts of Oregon, however, because that would leave my family (we have a family farm which goes back four generations so it would be tough to move)stuck in the newly created and even more liberal state of Western Oregon which would be even more dominated by Portland.
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