I hadn't heard about the 6 state idea before. However, many people have tried to separate Northern California from Southern California for some time now. The idea was to call the Northern portion: Jefferson. In fact, for years there are "State of Jefferson" signs north of Mt. Shasta up near Yreka visible from Interstate 5 that have been there for years on buildings like Hay barns. The idea years ago mostly was about Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco stealing northern California water that farmers need to grow food. I can see why it would be on the ballot again because of the 100 year plus drought and farmers worried about going out of business permanently because of it. So, now it's 6 states? I could see how this might pass in some areas but not in San Francisco, Los Angeles or San Diego or Sacramento.
Californians May Get to Vote on Dividing State
Post-Periodical
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Supporters
of an initiative to divide California into six states say they
submitted 1.3 million signatures in counties across the state Tuesday.
Californians May Get to Vote on Dividing State
Supporters of an initiative to divide California into six states say they submitted 1.3 million signatures in counties across the state Tuesday.
The
petition needed approximately 808,000 signatures of registered
California voters to qualify for the November 2016 statewide ballot. The
Secretary of State will determine whether there are enough valid
signatures.“Six Californias gives us an opportunity to reboot and refresh our state government,” said Timothy Draper, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist behind the effort. “We are ready to create six more responsive, representative governments, more sympathetic governments, more modern governments, more service oriented governments.”
Draper believes large segments of the population do not feel they are being represented by the current government, and smaller governments would be better able to meet the needs of the people. He listed declining education rankings, increasing prison population and failing infrastructure as evidence the state has failed.
“Six Californias gives us an opportunity to improve our schools, our roads, our waterways, our business and jobs climate, our prison system and our economy. It gives us the opportunity to live in this glorious state and have great government services too,” Draper said.
Under the proposal, West California would consist of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. South California would include Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino and Imperial counties. Other states would be Jefferson (consisting of the northernmost counties), Silicon Valley, Central California and North California.
The initiative faces major obstacles, including a skeptical public and political questions. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a Field Poll in February found 59 percent of Californians opposed the idea. U.S. Congress would need to approve the new states, and most observers say that is highly unlikely.
Critics have said the division would create extremely wealthy and extremely poor states. Steven Maviglio, a Democratic strategist and the most outspoken critic of the plan, called it a “colossal waste of time, energy and money.”
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