An initiative to split California into three states started to circulate in California on April 24. To qualify, it needs 365,880 valid signatures by April 2018. If passed, the Governor of California would be required to ask Congress to approve the idea. The proponent is Timothy Draper.
1 or 2 more Donkey regimes – ie 4 or 2 more Donkey USA Senators ???
DOA in the Elephant gerrymander Congress.
Abolish the gerrymander USA Senate — divide all larger States.
It would likely be split into 2 Dem states and 1 Repub state. The Northern part of the state (and the southern part of Oregon) are heavily Republican. This is why the Dems are so against it, they’ll lose what they consider guaranteed electoral votes.
There’s been another push to make a state called “Jefferson” that would comprise Northern Cali and Southern Oregon. See link for map of proposed state: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/State_of_Jefferson_Map.svg/220px-State_of_Jefferson_Map.svg.png
What would be the three states?
I seriously doubt that this will pass if it qualifies for the ballot.
How’s the secession initiative petition doing? That’s the one that makes the most sense.
The three states could be called, northward from the Mexican border: Alta California, Masalta California, and Altissima California.
I am pretty sure that it is long past the deadline for the California secession initiative to have qualied for the ballot.
California has about a six month period for gathering petition signatures on a statewide ballot initiative. If a proponent dies not get enough signatures during the six month period after the petition language is approved for circulation, any valid signatures collected on it no longer count, and if the propont wants another crack at qualifying, they have to resubmit the petition language for approval, and then start over again from zero signatures.
@WZ,
“California” would be the coastal strip from Los Angeles to Monterey, plus San Benito. “Northern California” would be the rest of the state northward from Merced, Mariposa, Tuolumne, and Alpine. “Southern California” would be the state southward from Fresno, Madera, and Mono.
The initiative is of questionable constitutionality. The US Constitution requires the “consent” of the legislature for creation of new states (Article IV, Section 3). This is somewhat different from “prescribing” the manner of elections for Senator and Representative (Article I, Section 4). In 2015, the SCOTUS ruled that the initiative could be used to prescribe the manner of drawing congressional districts (by a redistricting commission). The concept behind the initiative is that the sovereign People reserve ultimate legislative authority.
The actual state legislature could give its consent by passing a resolution, which is done by a process that resembles passing a bill, but can the People give consent via the initiative? An actual split would require a boatload of legislation (for example, who would own the various UCAL branches, how would debt be transferred, if existing laws remained in effect, how would they transition if they required interstate compacts. How would the Highway Patrol be reorganized, etc.
@Andy,
The original initiative was withdrawn, after the primary proponent decided that he could not run the movement effective from Moscow (Russia not Idaho), where he had gone to fight the US over a visa for his wife (or perhaps fiancee).
There is a new initiative that has been circulating since July (deadline January 22). Looking at the website, they are not too active, and probably depending on volunteers. For October, there were two Saturday “events” in Long Beach.
The California National Party is seeking recognition as a qualified party. It could conceivably be easier, since voters can change their registration online, and much fewer persons are needed than passing a constitutional amendment.
Perhaps wait until the BIG ONE super-earthquake physically divides CA ???
@DR,
Like L.P. and U.P.?