Movements to divide the state of California dates back to 1850, prior to the hanging of the California flag in Sacramento, the states capitol. During the first 150 years of California’s statehood, there have been 27 proposals to split the Golden state. In 1859 over 75% of voters were in agreeance with the separation of California into multiple states, unfortunately the Civil War distracted congressman in Washington.
Yet another movement to separate California came up in the 1940’s, when southern Oregon and North California attempted to create the state of Jefferson. This movement was also swept under the rug due to another war at that time, World War 2. There were plenty of state separation proposals thereafter, however this time; a progressive plan was put in effect on June 12th, 2018 to split California into 3 states.
It would be the first state division of a US state since the creation of West Virginia back in 1863. The California state split proposal starts with Northern California; it would consist of 40 counties starting from Oregon, south to Santa Cruz County, then east to Merced and Mariposa counties. Southern California would begin with Madera County and then curve its way along the state’s eastern and southern side, made up of 12 counties and moving along up the Pacific coast to include San Diego and Orange counties.
24 states in the US, including California allow voters to change laws by petitioning and obtaining signatures. Tim Draper, a wealthy venture capitalist spent years arguing that California would be better off split into smaller states, stating that California is too large to be governed correctly.
Draper has had previous attempts back in 2012 and 2014 to propose SIX California states, but critics argued that California’s rural areas would suffer from high rates of poverty as individual states, while some coastal areas would flourish and prosper. However Draper’s political team dropped the ball which resulted in throwing out Draper’s California 6 state proposal.
The campaign obtained hundreds of thousands of signatures in 2014, only to find out most of them were invalidated by election officials. This year Draper obtained enough signatures to put it before the voters and the California Supreme Court. However recently, the California state Supreme Court issued a ruling that blocked the proposal to divide the Golden state into three states.
The court ordered California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla to throw the petition out of the November ballot. One of the many legal excuses for the decision was the state would face a wide range of legal and political obstacles in the near future.
The Supreme Court also stated that they needed more time to study whether this split would violate any state constitutions. So therefore California will remain one state for now, but this will not be the end of this legal dispute. Draper is expected to respond with any reasons he believes the PCL suit is incorrect, leaving a potential possibility that the California split will make it onto a ballot in the future.