'New California' movement seeks to divide the Golden State in half

Two men have launched a campaign to divide rural California from the coastal cities, motivated by what they referred to as a “tyrannical form of government,” that doesn’t follow the state or federal constitution, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Unlike the failed 2016 campaign to split California into 6 states, the “New California” movement, founded by Robert Paul Preston and Tom Reed, seeks to consolidate rural California into a dinstinct economy separate from the coast.

Preston and Reed say the citizens of the state live “under a tyrannical form of government that does not follow the California and U.S. Constitutions.”

The "founders" have evoked Article IV Section 3 of the United States Constitution as justification for establishing a new economy with a new state constitution.

I wonder how this would impact the Electoral College tallying. I guess they’d have to divvy up the count that exists now.

Every state gets one EV for each US House Rep and one for each Senator. So the smallest states have 3 EVs. (DC has 3 EVs too, by Constitutional Amendment).

Congressional districts roughly contain 700,000 citizens.

So, after partition the two states would split up the reps, with each getting however many their new population required, but the total staying the same. (There might be a fight about that last one that needed to be split in 1/2, but regular reapportionment would adjust things going forward anyway).

The news State would get two Senators, the old State would get two Senators. As a result the total EV's for the two resulting states would go up by two.

The exact breakout would depend on population. Given that the big population centers are all in the "Old California" they would probably end with the lions share.

Here is the map of the existing districts, which sort of gives you and idea.

you greatly overstate the case... California is a massive state, and the bulk of the state geographically anyway can claim very real grievance against their government.... the other states you list, not so much.

If California were to break, particularly along those lines, No Democrat would win the White House again.

If California were to break, particularly along those lines, No Democrat would win the White House again.

I think you are overestimating. Cali has 55 electoral votes. After the split New California would get about 15 from looking at the map, plus two for their new Senators. Old California would get 40+2. Seventeen reliable Republicanelectoral votes would not guarantee GOP victories in all future POTUS contests. Obama won by more than that, for instance.

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