Last month Colorado counties voted to secede, and we all looked and laughed at this last effort of discontent players wanting to run home with their ball. Well, now we have some counties in my home state reviving a century old wish to create their own state.....
Today we learn that for the nth time some counties in northern California are resurrecting the idea of seceding and creating the new State of Jefferson. A resident commented:
Baird rattles off the movement's rationale: An independent state would deliver local control to a region whose residents have long chafed under Sacramento's rules, feel alienated from urban culture and believe in greater push-back against an overreaching federal government.
We can rest assured what the political inclination of those "big guv'ment" voters will be. Let's look at the tentative state boundaries originally proposed in 1941 by Gilbert Gable (dark red) and the extended modern proposed version of the state (lighter red)
If you you check 2012 presidential votes for those counties we get a clearer picture of what color that state would be:
from Wikipedia:
As of the 2010 Census, if the Jefferson counties were a state (original 1941 counties), the state's population would be 457,859: smaller than any state at the time. Approximately 82% of those residents live in Oregon. Its land area would be 21,349.76 square miles (55,295.6 km2) – a little smaller than West Virginia. The area is almost evenly divided between Oregon and California. Its population density would be 21.44 inhabitants per square mile (8.28 /km2) – a little more than Idaho. With the addition of the more modern Jefferson movement (Coos, Douglas, Lake, Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta, Lassen, Plumas, Butte, Glenn, Medocino, and Tehama Counties), the population as of the 2010 Census would be 1,416,434, making it the 40th most populous state in the US.
This would almost guarantee two new GOP senators, and although this would have to be approved by both OR and CA state legislatures, it also would need US Congress approval. But if this should become more than a disgruntled counties dream I would support it if we make D.C. and Puerto Rico a state.... I think DC would have 2 Dem Senators and PR could be one and one.