Posted on 07/17/2023 8:57:54 PM PDT by thecodont
Sharon Durst, leader of the secessionist El Dorado state movement, knows people don't take attempts like hers seriously. Past efforts to split rural California counties off from the rest of the state have accomplished little beyond inspiring ridicule — which the former rancher, now in her 80s, experienced directly as an early supporter of the infamous state of Jefferson.
But Durst also knows that something has to change, if rural counties like El Dorado are going to have a fair say in how they’re governed. On July 10, she and former county Supervisor Ray Nutting co-hosted a town hall to explain to their neighbors why the solution is peeling the county off from California and forming a new state.
It’s true that California has a unique problem of representation in state government. No state in the country has fewer state legislators per capita; the problem is especially stark in rural areas like El Dorado County, population 192,000. In the state Senate, El Dorado is represented by a legislator who also represents voters in 12 other counties; in the state Assembly, the county is split between two legislators, each responsible for voters across several counties, with widely diverging industries and demographics. Not one of the three legislators responsible for representing El Dorado County actually lives there.
“This has long been an ongoing problem in California politics,” said Isaac Hale, a professor of politics at Occidental College who specializes in electoral systems and representation. “There are nearly 500,000 Californians per assemblymember and a million Californians per state senator, and that’s pretty out of whack.”
“You could double the size of the Assembly, and we’d still have the highest number of people represented by district,” he added. “And there are serious consequences to this.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
If you can leave California, then just leave. If you’re older, obviously you’re not going to do that. But it’s important to vote with your feet.
If they succeed i am moving the entire family and bringing our skills. It is an amazing place and football comes on early so I can go to bed for my early work hours.
I left California after 13-years there. That was in 1994. I sold my house and was free and clear of it, while it was still a viable state.
There is nothing I dropped in California that I need to go back for. I took my good memories, nothing else.
Left in ‘95 after nearly 15 years. I love the state, but that is cancelled by the unlimited loathing for the commie asshats that have ruined a beautiful state.
Moved to the Bay Area in 1968. Left in 1989, post earthquake. It was literally turning into shit.
FYI - England would never have relinquished control of the Colonies without armed resistance; and DemonicRat governors make the King of England look mild mannered.
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