"South California' for 51st state? Local Southern Cal lawmaker wants the Golden state split up

[Shortline Bus]

'South California' for 51st state?: Fed up with Sacramento, a Riverside County politician seeks to break 13 counties away to form a state called South California

 

 

By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times

 

July 11, 2011

 

"Accusing Sacramento of pillaging local governments to feed its runaway spending and left-wing policies, a Riverside County politician is proposing a solution: He wants 13 mostly inland, conservative counties to break away to form a separate state of "South California.''

 

Supervisor Jeff Stone, a Republican pharmacist from Temecula, called California an "ungovernable'' financial catastrophe from which businesses are fleeing and where taxpayers are being crushed by the burden of caring for welfare recipients and illegal immigrants.

 

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Graphic: Split-state proposal

On Tuesday, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors will consider Stone's proposal to host a statewide summit for city and county leaders to sketch out a framework for secession.

 

The politician said he was undaunted by scores of failed similar attempts since the 1800s, saying Californians haven't face such dismal economic times since the Great Depression.

 

"This has struck a chord with a lot of people in the state who have suffered economically,'' said Stone, adding that he has received thousands of emails supporting his proposal. "We know it's going to be a challenge to form a second state, but it's not a impossible. We're sending a message.''

 

A spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, called Stone's proposal a laughable political stunt, saying the Riverside County supervisors should be more concerned about closing that county's expected $130-million revenue shortfall in the next budget year and possible cutbacks to public safety.

 

"It's a supremely ridiculous waste of everybody's time," said spokesman Gil Duran. "If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there's a place called Arizona.''

 

Along with Riverside, the counties in Stone's South California would be Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego and Tulare.

 

Combined, those counties are home to about 13 million people. Republicans account for the majority of registered voters in all of those counties except San Bernardino and Imperial.

 

Noticeably absent from Stone's vision of an independent South California is Los Angeles County, the state's largest by population and a Democratic stronghold. Ventura and Santa Barbara counties also failed to make the cut.

 

"Los Angeles is purposely excluded because they have the same liberal policies that Sacramento does. The last thing I want to do is create a state that's a carbon copy of what we have now,'' Stone said. "Los Angeles just enacted a ban on plastic grocery bags. That put three or four manufacturers out of business.''

 

Still, Stone said he would be amenable to including other counties that might be interested, or even to shifting boundaries radically by cleaving the state between inland and coastal counties.

 

More than 220 campaigns to split California into halves, or thirds, have been bandied about since the 1850s, most echoing similar arguments that the state had grown too large and was paralyzed by politicians and bureaucrats who ignored the concerns of the people.

 

"Secession proposals are just ways of thinking about California, and are also ways for people who feel neglected get the attention that they deserve," said USC historian Kevin Starr, who has written extensively on California. "It's never passed, and it will never pass. It's been up to bat 220 times and struck out every time.''

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-south-california-20110711,0,2846870.story?obref=obnetwork

[Fresh Pond]

So basically, they want a Republican California

 

Yeah how about no

[INDman]

As if the state of fruits and nuts isn't strange enough, let em do.

[Tokkemon]

California is way too big for itself. Because of the massive population growth after the gold rush, no one bothered to split the territory up which was originally just inherited land after the Mexico War. 'Tis silly to have a state the size of the entire Northeast.

[Grand Concourse]

San Fran'psycho' may as well be it's own state. Splitting CA would be a good thing that's usually 50+ EC votes going to the Democrats anyway.

Not to mention how I doubt Boxer, Pelosi, Feinstein represents the entire state outside of maybe SF and LA.

 

Hell, why stop with just CA? I think the entire country needs to be redrawn. Let cities be the capitals/basis for the state with the surrounding areas lumped in. [Recommend watching the history channel show: How the States got their shapes]

[lilbluefoxie]

I like this idea, if California wants to be the next Michigan with no prospects and a permanent financial wasteland, why should the productive parts of the state have to suffer

[Roadcruiser1]

This is the worse idea I have ever read. It would turn California into a wasteland. Just watch how South California will want to be with North California in like 1 year after they break away from them. Stupid politicians will always be f**king stupid & other politicians are correct. If they hate the state so much then f**king move to another state. No one told you to f**king live there. People will never learn the saying that you can't just have cake and eat it too.

[CTK246]

We can barely fit 50 stars on the flag...and 51 states doesn't sound as good as 50 states...plus, southern California residents would have to get whole new paperwork and stuff, which would be totally stressful.

[Roadcruiser1]

This is a link to a 51st state flag (Since people are complaining about bandwidth)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/US_51_Star_possible_Flag.svg

[lilbluefoxie]

It would turn California into a wasteland.

 

Theyre doing that already as a unified California

[Roadcruiser1]

Anyway this is an image made by me so I am killing my bandwidth. This is what South California would basically look like on a map. The counties in South California are in the highlighted red area.

[peacemak3r]

Back in when I was younger in the shoe game, people already go around saying they from NorCal or SoCal, I feel as if it didn't matter anyway.

[MHV9218]

Please, watch the Nazi Banksters Crimes Ripple Effect at http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[Roadcruiser1]

The person just wants to do this so he can have no term limits. Sounds like that we already have crazy people in this nation that wants to have complete control of things.

[Shortline Bus]

Actually this proposal by this 'tea-party' supporter has gotten alot of attention in the state and across the nation.

 

 

Although the general thought by many is that this politican is leaving in a dream land and any "South Calif" must include the LA area.

[Roadcruiser1]

I think this politician only wants to make money off of LA. You can tell, because most of the water for LA comes in from the regions I highlighted in red which would be Southern California if it ever happens.

[MHV9218]

Please, watch the Nazi Banksters Crimes Ripple Effect at http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[Grand Concourse]

Please, even if this wasn't about the conservatives, there's other places that could probably be better off if they split like NYC from NYS. States probably don't want division because they view one area as their 'cash cow'.

CA is in a deep hole because of overspending. Splitting the state into two could make management easier instead of 'one person' handling everything.