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[ivysaur12]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/15/us-usa-california-breakup-idUSKBN0FK03P20140715

(Reuters) - A long-shot effort to break California into six separate states got a boost on Monday, when the billionaire venture capitalist behind the proposal said he had gathered enough signatures to place it on the ballot in two years.

Timothy Draper, a founder of a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that has invested in Twitter, Skype and Tesla, among other companies, has been agitating for months for a ballot initiative to chop the most populous U.S. state into smaller entities.

"It’s important because it will help us create a more responsive, more innovative and more local government, and that ultimately will end up being better for all of Californians," said Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the campaign. "The idea ... is to create six states with responsive local governments - states that are more representative and accountable to their constituents."

Salazar said Monday that the campaign had gathered more than the roughly 808,000 signatures needed to place the measure on the November, 2016 ballot. Draper and other supporters plan to file the signatures with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Tuesday.

"This is a colossal and divisive waste of time, energy, and money that will hurt the California brand,” said Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political strategist who has formed the group OneCalifornia with GOP strategist Joe Rodota to fight Draper’s plan. "It has zero chance of passage. But what it does is scare investment away... at a time when the Governor is leading us to an economic comeback.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/07/15/six-californias-tim-draper/12661161/

A map of the "6 states"

Who's ready for a barrage of advertisements over this colossal waste of time?!

 

[Captain Zyrain]

I live in CA and I'm OK with this.

 

[foxuzamaki]

I see

 

[Ferrio]

So I'm going to guess the ultimate goal is this allows republicans to win some parts of cali?

 

[Mexen]

Why not 7 states instead?

 

[MattKeil]

The way he divided the state is so ridiculous, and so ignorant of how California's economy functions, that even if he did have sufficient support, nobody in their right mind would vote for the plan as written.

So I'm going to guess the ultimate goal is this allows republicans to win some parts of cali?

No, the ultimate goal is for the beautiful wonderful Silicon Valley elite to no longer have to contribute tax money to those dirty poors in the Central Valley and elsewhere. You'll notice that Silicon Valley/SF is its own state, and then there's another state north of there that's a horizontal strip containing the Napa wine country and prime skiing locations where they can go on vacation. The Central Valley is left to its own devices, even though that's where all the damn food comes from, and he has made Los Angeles County and Orange County two separate states, which leaves a tremendous number of Los Angeles' working class earning their money in a different state from their place of residence.

 

[Tripon]

This is so dumb.

 

[Hindl]

So I'm going to guess the ultimate goal is this allows republicans to win some parts of cali?

I assume so. Takes gerrymandering to a whole new level

 

[baekshi]

Can we split NYC from NY state also? I'd like my freedom and technology progress.

 

[Plinko]

This is so incredibly stupid. What a colossal waste of time and money.

 

[muteki]

North California isn't actually the northern end of California.

 

[flkraven]

West Cali and Silicon Valley get all that sports-team money

 

[Deleted member 13876]

Oh it's that dude again.

 

[nateeasy]

So I'm going to guess the ultimate goal is this allows republicans to win some parts of cali?

I thought it was to put 10 more Dems in the senate.

 

[Atlas157]

Why six? Why not three states? That guy is an idiot.

Either way it's still stupid.

 

[baconcow]

This is rather interesting, to a Canadian. I always wondered if something like this would happen in my lifetime. Are those lightly-shaded regions counties? Do they exist now?

 

[Sinfamy]

This is a republican move to limit California voter power isn't it?

 

[Toki767]

Which of these states will allow me to not get taxed by Amazon purchases?

 

[B-Dubs]

This is still the dumbest idea ever.

 

[Dr.Acula]

North California isn't actually the northern end of California.

It will be once they kick "Jefferson" out.

And this will fuck up the American flag.

 

[butalala]

So the point of this is so that Silicon Valley and West California can be super rich and shrug off all of the poor people, who must be in South and Central California?

I don't know California very well.

 

[Mr.Awesome]

So I'm going to guess the ultimate goal is this allows republicans to win some parts of cali?

I'm guessing it would hurt them Senate wise.

 

[dakkumauji]

Why would you break up the Bay Area like that

 

[AstroNut325]

Don't want and complete waste of time and money.

 

[Funky Papa]

*thinks about water rights*


*laughs uncontrollably*

*seizes*

*dies*

 

[demon]

100 bucks says this never, ever, ever happens.

 

[AlexMogil]

This is rather interesting, to a Canadian. I always wondered if something like this would happen in my lifetime. Are those lightly-shaded regions counties? Do they exist now?

Didn't you have the NorthWest Territories get all broke up?

 

[Kerned]

So the point of this is so that Silicon Valley and West California can be super rich and shrug off all of the poor people, who must be in South and Central California?

I don't know California very well.

That is the long and short of it, yes.

 

[ivysaur12]

So the point of this is so that Silicon Valley and West California can be super rich and shrug off all of the poor people, who must be in South and Central California?

I don't know California very well.

That's exactly what's going on.

 

[B-Dubs]

So the point of this is so that Silicon Valley and West California can be super rich and shrug off all of the poor people, who must be in South and Central California?

I don't know California very well.

There's also going to be huge issues with water rights.

 

[GraveRobberX]

Are they really going to name a state Silicon Valley?

Seriously?

 

[jerry1594]

Guy trying to get the bay area rich people land. Fuck him.
God I hate the dickheads in silicon valley.

 

[Dan]

I'm annoyed this found enough traction to even get anywhere near the ballot. What a terrible idea.

 

[Yoda]

This is a republican move to limit California voter power isn't it?

This helps and hurts both parties. In the event this passed (it won't) the republicans would lose the senate and would have a harder time holding the house. Larger states get a form of diminishing returns in their delegation if their populations are extremely large (Like CA), this would increase the # of reps "California" gets and they break democratic. However, this would give the Republicans the ability to have a state (not all of them) which adopts conservative policies (and elects them on a regular basis). In all if it is the Map shown above (multiple states) it would be bad for Republicans. If they only did two states, the Republicans could easily call it a victory.

This is only federal legislature concerns. I'm sure there are a multitude of local concerns also but as I'm not from CA I wouldn't know them off the top of my head.

 

[Tripon]

This is a republican move to limit California voter power isn't it?

It'll increase 3-4 more democratic senate seats the way voting demographics are trending.

More people are registering Democratic in what considered to be 'South California' in that proposed maps.

 

[Delta Assault]

...Otisburg?

 

[PhoenixDark]

Never going to happen since congress has to approve it. I'd imagine republicans might like the idea since it could net them some EC votes.

 

[BertramCooper]

California's initiative system is so fucked up.

Only 808,000 signatures needed in a state with almost 40 million people? Bonkers.

 

[Kyzer]

I would say there's no chance in hell, but Cali voted in Terminator what do I know

 

[jstripes]

No more Californias until we get more Dakotas.

 

[AstroNut325]

I'll just leave this here too:

 

[Funky Papa]

California's initiative system is so fucked up.

Only 808,000 signatures needed in a state with almost 40 million people? Bonkers.

Good enough for me, IMO.

But I'm a huge fan of direct democracy, so there is that.

 

[Bizazedo]

The States song would be forever ruined. That cannot be allowed.

 

[studyguy]

G E R R Y M A N D E R I N G?
In my California?! The least they could do is not name a portion of the state Jefferson.

Goodness.

 

[GraveRobberX]

So Jefferson state would have less than 1000K population, while Silicon, West, Central, South have the huge lion's share of the population roughly 5mil+ in each state

What the fuck?

Why not merge North and Jefferson together?

Make it 5, why do you really need 6

Hell 3 would hell a lot of easier

North, Central, South

 

[Kerned]

Are they really going to name a state Silicon Valley?

Seriously?

They aren't going to name it anything because this has close to 0% chance of happening. Even if the voters approve the ballot measure (doubtful), the US Senate would then have to approve the creation of five new states. To say that part of the plan is "unlikely" would be charitable to say the least.

 

[EatinOlives]

This is a republican move to limit California voter power isn't it?

I'd love them try to break up Texas in the same way. I'd love to suggest that just to see the blood drain from Republicans' faces.

 

[Tesseract]

what a piece of shit

 

[xbhaskarx]

This idea is so stupid, it's like it was created by someone who has never actually lived in California...

Just split it up into North California and South California.

 

[perfectchaos007]

There have been proposals to break up Texas into 5 states but nothing ever came of it. Would be neat to see Cali broken up, then Texas can be the largest state by population in the Union!