Break-up of California moves a step closer as billionaire gets enough signatures to trigger vote

www.telegraph.co.uk ^ | 04/12/2018 | Ben Riley-Smith, US Editor

[Red Badger]

The chance of California splitting into three has moved a step closer after a billionaire secured enough signatures to trigger a referendum on the issue.

Tim Draper, who made his money through Hotmail and Skype, has gathered 600,000 signatures supporting the change – way above the 364,000 needed.

Those who want to break up California believe it would boost educational standards and reduce the political power of Sacramento, the state’s capital.

Providing the state authorities agree the signatures are genuine a referendum on the issue will be held this November alongside other mid-term elections.

[vette6387]

“I wonder if the Owens Valley will be included in a red state?”

Especially since their “allotment” of water from the Colorado River is being cut now that AZ is finally taking the water to which it was entitled when they built Hoover Dam.
And FWIW, the courts have cut the amount of water LAMWD can take from the Owens River, because they were slowly strangling Mono Lake to death. Unless the morons running the LA Basin change their minds, Los Angeles will become Mexico City in every respect including scarcity of water.

[Rastus]

So Cali goes from having two liberal senators to four.

[vette6387]

“Use the cities as nuclear test sites?”

Dumb $hit! A lot of good people live in and near them! That kind of comment is uncalled for!

[blueplum]

three? Hey, Norcal, don’t you all get to thinking you can be stickin’ SoCal with LA. Forget that right now. Six states are much better. Signed, a member of the future Republic of Southern California

[x]

Breaking up California would be awesome. It would turn a massive blue state into a blue state, a red state, and maybe a purple state?

Two Democrat states for sure: the LA one and the SF one.

The others might be swing states that Republicans could win some times.

Coastal Northern California is very liberal and has more people than the more conservative inland counties.

The Central Valley was old school Democrat and might go Republican

Orange county was Republican before Trump, so was San Diego county before Obama, but the area is trending Democrat.

This map puts San Francisco and Sacramento in the same new state.

In the unlikely event that this goes through, the Democrats who run the state would probably put Sacramento in the Northern state or the Central Valley state to make that one Democrat as well.

One real benefit is that splitting up the state might mean getting rid of California's crazy electoral law, which pretty much guarantees the Democrats win state offices.

[Enlightened1]

Sorry it’s never going to happen.

Just because you lose an election does not mean you get to throw a tantrum and leave the Republic until another POTUS comes in that you like.

Keep fantasizing.

[Verginius Rufus]

California never was a territory--it bypassed that stage. It had 93 thousand residents in the 1850 census (when 60 thousand was the number required for statehood)--it had more people than Delaware or Florida. People flooded into California because of the gold rush.

But one or more states could be created from California with the consent of Congress, just like Kentucky and West Virginia were created from Virginia.

[nicollo]

I’m in favor of splitting Idaho and Wyoming into six states apiece. That would give us 24 rock solid conservative senators. Fair’s fair.

Finally someone gets it!

I'm thinking here of a sort of Missouri Compromise: Cali gets cut in third and NY, MD, and OR get cut in half, so it's an even trade on Senate and EC. The advantage to us is that CA power will be dispersed while conservative NY2, MD2, and OR2 will consolidate as conservative.

[dangus]

Or redivide Maine and New Hampshire so the Masshole shoreline was one state, and the mountains were another,

[PIF]

Just build a wall cheaper, quicker and easier.

[arthurus]

You mean they don’t have bomb shelters yet?

[arthurus]

Just ask Jeff Davis, through a medium, of course.

[Hieronymus]

Even had the advantage of having Lincoln and co’. “interpreting” the Constitution

[Reno89519]

I just reread the articles, several on this, and I think the guy has set this up for failure or subtly to create more power for liberals and Democrats. The idea is DOA.

The north section includes the Bay Area, which would overwhelm the rest of that section. So the Bay Area gets TWO Democrat senators and several congressman.

The coast section gets the LA area, another liberal bastion, giving them TWO more senators and several congressmen.

And the balance includes San Diego and on up. Again major areas of liberal voters. Another two Democratic senators and congressmen.

Triple California's power in Congress. NO WAY.

[Red Badger]

While there would be an increase of Senators, four more, the number of Representatives would likely stay the same or even drop a couple, since their number is based on population..................

[Reno89519]

How do you see same? The northern area includes the San Francisco area, which disenfranchises the balance. The coastal area has LA, so again liberal. and the southern is overrun by Mexicans and is third liberal area. That's 6 Democrats instead of the current two.

Breaking up the state is appealing but needs to enfranchise people, not the opposite.

[Red Badger]

Representatives are according to population. Currently, CA has 53 total. If you divide CA into smaller states, the number might stay the same depending on how the lines are drawn, or might actually go down, if the population is concentrated into one or two of the new states..............

[Reno89519]

SENATORS are TWO PER STATE. The lines drawn create three DEMOCRAT majority states!!!

[Red Badger]

I said that in the first sentence, an increase of 4..............

[Magnum44]

The lines drawn create three DEMOCRAT majority states!!!

Yes. That seems to be the objective here. LA to Monterey County, swamped by LA is definitely Blue. Norcal swamped by SF is definitely Blue. Socal could possibly be red depending on San Diego, but my guess is it would go Blue as well. This is a plan to permanently make the senate Rat.