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Posted: Wednesday, July 23, 2014 12:11 am By Andrew Creasey/ acreasey@appealdemocrat.com Sutter County is now an official supporter of the movement to secede from California and create a new state called Jefferson. The Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution on Tuesday supporting a declaration and petition to the Legislature to redress a lack of representation and for the possible formation of a new, separate state. The resolution also reserved the right to place the issue to a vote of Sutter County citizens at a future election. As in past supervisor meetings when the issue was on the agenda, the...

Tim Draper loves California so much he’d like to see six of them. The Silicon Valley venture capitalist, best known for backing such companies as Hotmail and Skype in the early days of the internet boom, believes government in his home state is so broken down that the only way to fix it is to break it up – like taking an axe to a creaking corporation with too many unprofitable divisions and too much bureaucracy choking its potential. And so he dreams of Silicon Valley, his home turf, getting the chance to run itself; Los Angeles becoming its own...

It’s possible you’ve already heard of the greatest harebrained political scheme of the year: Venture capitalist Tim Draper’s plan to break California into six states, which might actually face a statewide vote in 2016. It all depends on whether Draper managed to snag the necessary number of signatures — 807,615 according to SFGate — to get the plan on the ballot. He’s claimed to have 1.3 million signatures, which would mean the residents of California would get to vote on the biggest breakup proposal in state history.

A Silicon Valley billionaire’s quixotic effort to split California into six separate states has moved closer to the ballot box with the submission of more than a million signatures to state election officials this week. Tom Draper’s plan to divide the Golden State up could be on the 2016 statewide ballot if enough of the signatures are certified.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Residents of California's largely rural, agrarian and politically conservative far northern counties long ago got used to feeling ignored in the state Capitol and out of sync with major urban areas. The idea of forming their own state has been a topic among local secession dreamers for more than a century. Residents in two counties will have a chance to voice that sentiment next week. Voters in Del Norte and Tehama, with a combined population of about 91,000, will decide June 3 on an advisory measure that asks each county's board of supervisors to join a...

<p>The people behind the idea missed the deadline for this year’s ballot, but now that they have enough signatures — more than 800,000 — they’ve earned a spot on the 2016 ballot. That’s a presidential election year, of course, which means higher turnout. A lot of Democrats are going to end up weighing in on this at the polls.</p>

Silicon Valley-based billionaire venture capitalist Timothy Draper has a dream: Six Californias. He's the major backer of a proposal that would split the nation's most populated state into six parts -- creating the new states of Jefferson, North California, Central California, South California, West California and Silicon Valley. And now his dream is a teensy bit closer to reality: A petition for "Six Californias" has reached the 808,000 some signatures needed to get a referendum on the ballot in 2016, spokesperson Roger Salazar tells Reuters. But that doesn't mean it'll be happening anytime soon: Even if the proposal is approved...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Splitting California into six states would be complicated and time-consuming but not impossible, according to a state analysis. Tim Draper, the multimillionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist behind the proposal, said he was encouraged by the California legislative analyst’s report, declaring that dividing the nation’s largest state is “clearly legal and doable.” “It is obvious that we need a breath of fresh air in California government, and creating six new states allows the refresh we need,” Mr. Draper said in an email after the study was made public over the weekend. “California, as it is, is ungovernable. We need our state...

A billionaire tech investor says he has enough backing to put on the ballot a plan to split California into six states. Timothy Draper, a venture capitalist founder of a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that has invested in such tech companies as Twitter, HotMail, Skype and Tesla, told Reuters he has the 808,000 signatures needed on a petition to force the measure onto a public referendum in November 2016. Under the far-fetched plan, one state would be called "Silicon Valley" and would include the tech mecca, as well as San Francisco. "California needs a reboot," Draper, who has spent...

Six Californias is a proposed initiative by venture capitalist Tim Draper to split California into six states: Jefferson, North California, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California, and South California. The topic has been covered extensively at Free Republic. You can find the other threads here. The purpose of this thread is to give some details of this proposed initiative. The state of Jefferson would be created from the far north part of California, bordering Oregon, and would consist of fourteen counties: Butte, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Plumas, Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, and Trinity. The state of...

A petition drive to divide California into six separate states was active on Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles, aimed at getting the plan on the ballot in 2016. According to the Los Angeles Times, Timothy Draper, a venture capitalist from Menlo Park, is spearheading the current effort and has injected $2 million dollars into the project so far. The optimistic Draper argues that a truncated California will dissolve bureaucratic gridlock in Sacramento and will be more conducive for business. Draper told the Times back in April that "California has become the worst managed state in the country… It just...

Good day, future citizen of West California! You may find yourself greeted thusly as you head into a supermarket or drugstore in Los Angeles on Saturday morning. Advocates for Six Californias, a plan to split the Golden State into a half dozen separate states, are holding a petition drive this weekend to get their plan on the ballot in 2016.

"I love Germany so much that I am glad there are two of them," the French novelist and Nobel laureateFrancois Mauriac commented acerbically during the Cold War. Investor Tim Draper loves California so much that he thinks there should be six of them. Draper is one of Silicon Valley'ssuperstar venture capitalists, an early funder of numerous high-tech enterprises, including, most famously, Skype and Hotmail. He is also the prime mover behind the "Six Californias" initiative, a proposal to partition the nation's most populous state into six smaller ones. From north to south, those new states would be: Jefferson, North California,...

California's unemployment rate hovers around 10% with over 1.5 million members of the labor force without work. The state's debt sits at an astronomical $419 billion and is expected to surpass $420 billion by the end of 2014. As of today's date, California spends $72 billion more than it takes in. Dividing California into six separate states could also result in the state's current debt being divided into more manageable segments. More importantly, dividing California could alleviate the state's looming tax burden. One of Draper's intentions is to create a new and competitive environment between the six states. Each region...

California has reached the breaking point, says Tim Draper. The Silicon Valley venture capitalist is pushing a proposal to crack the nation's most populous state into smaller pieces — six of them. California has grown so big, so inefficient, it's essentially ungovernable, according to a ballot initiative that could reach voters as early as November. It has to go, he says. "Vast parts of our state are poorly served by a representative government," according to Draper's plan, which cleared a key government hurdle this week, part of the process to qualify for the ballot. California residents "would be better served...

LOS ANGELES — California has reached the breaking point. Or so says Tim Draper, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who is pushing a proposal to crack the nation's most populous state into pieces. Six of them, in this case. California has grown so big, so divided, it's essentially ungovernable, according to a ballot initiative that could reach voters in November. It has to go. "Vast parts of our state are poorly served by a representative government," according to Draper's plan, which cleared a key government hurdle this week to qualify for the ballot. California residents "would be better served by...

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) – Supporters of a plan to divide California into six sates can begin collecting signatures to get the proposal on the ballot. Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that the proposed ballot initiative – known as Six Californias – could move forward Tuesday. Under the plan, from venture capitalist Tim Draper, most of the Bay Area would be considered “Silicon Valley.” Napa, Sonoma and Marin Counties would become part of “North California.”

TechCrunch has learned about noted technology investor Tim Draper’s plan to split California into six separate states, including a Northern California slice appropriately named “Silicon Valley.” Draper shared his vision with TechCrunch tonight. He says he’s submitting a polished version to the state’s Attorney General in the form of a ballot proposition proposal within the next 48 hours. “Six Californias” already has a campaign website up and is eager for an army of volunteers. We’ve pasted the full ballot initiative below, along with the redrawn map of California. Essentially, the idea is to section off California into six horizontal slices,...