It will never happen, but if you’re wondering what that proposed state of “South California” would look like, geographically and politically . . .
(Map courtesy of this cartographic program.)
Those blue counties have about 13 million people, which would make it the country’s fifth most populous state, behind Texas, New York, Florida, and what’s left of California. It would have roughly 20 congressional districts and 22 electoral votes. It would also be heavily Republican.
Again, it will never happen; Congress and the state legislature would have to agree . . . but I wonder how many Republicans will dream of taking 22 electoral votes out of the Democrats’ column in presidential races and into the GOP one.
as a resident of Orange County, I would love to see this happen. Taking 22 EV's away from the Dems would be nice, but better would be to separate from the democrat/liberal/public employee union controlled current state government. Nice to dream. But it will never happen.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd adding two GOP senators to the Senate.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA beautiful idea. Let a thousand nations bloom. A Republican controlled Senate('12) and more folks like OC above, and who knows?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"fourth most populated state, behind Texas, New York, Florida, and what’s left of California"
Texas (1), New York (2), Florida (3), rest of California (4)
Isn't behind that called "fifth?"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseListen here, college boy...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama beat McCain in these counties, 2,198,470 to 2,102,594. So this would be creating a swing state that would trend Democratic over the long term.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExactly right. California already is majority Hispanic in population under 18 (51% per the 2010 census) and is predicted to be majority Hispanic in 2042.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseas long as the new state government could enact Arizona-like immigration reforms and limit welfare, conservatives would move in and few liberals would leave the other california. the rest of california would become more liberal over time - new california could stop that from happening.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou can't use the election of 2008 for much information on long-term trends. Obama also won in conservative states like North Carolina and Virginia.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, the proposal could happen. The US Constitution states that the State and Congress must approve before a state can be formed from part of another. Obviously the CA State legislature will not approve.
But what if each county put the it on the ballot to leave CA, form a new S CA government, and become a US territory rather than a state? The block of counties then cut all ties to the CA government. No more oppressive CA regulation. No more CA income tax.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo, the Constitution requires the consent of the state to split it up. Not the people of the state, but the state government. They could not bypass Sacramento by referendum.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, the proposal could happen. The US Constitution states that the State and Congress must approve before a state can be formed from part of another. Obviously the CA State legislature will not approve.
But what if each county put the it on the ballot to leave CA, form a new S CA government, and become a US territory rather than a state? The block of counties then cut all ties to the CA government. No more oppressive CA regulation. No more CA income tax.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI wouldn't call it heavily Republican, since it would have voted for Obama by a small margin. Still, it would be nice from an electoral perspective...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama also won North Carolina and Indiana. Obama votes against MCCAIN cannot be used as a measure of how conservative a state is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusetechnically, this would take 20 electoral votes from the Dems, and give 2 newly created electoral votes to the Republicans. 2 of the electoral votes would be created by creating the new state. 20 congressional districts + 2 electoral votes for the senate seats.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNice fantasy, but another problem: SD County is slowly trending Red (i.e., blue) as more liberals flee the hellholes they've created in, e.g., the Bay Area, only to begin recreating them here.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI used to travel with some frequency to both Californias, north and south. I quickly found that they are two very different places.
The NoCals looked down on the SoCals as a bunch of knuckle-dragging troglodytes, nasty Reaganites.
The SoCals looked down on the NoCals as a bunch of granola eating-birkenstock wearing hippies.
Both were correct (to a certain extent). They are at least as different in character as, say, the United States and Canada.
It makes sense that they become their own states.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEven though California's legislature will never allow this to happen, it's a fun thing to think about. Disregarding political ideologies, if parts of states were to split simply because of cultural differences, then I'm sure nearly every state would have a large area that could make a case for their secession.
Long Island could become its own state, along with south Louisiana, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, et. al.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo way. It would not be a Republican state at all. San Diego is sometimes Republican, along with Riverside, SB and the Valley. Only Orange County would be solidly GOP. I would rather have Eastern WA split off and form a new state: that would at least be Republican.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI also live in Orange County and would love to be rid of the enviro-libs that have been running our state, but I'm afraid it may be too late. I wrote a couple of pieces a while back discussing my state going into the tank. At the time I thought it couldn't get any worse. Then we had Nov 2 2010.
So many of the areas in "South" California, even in "conservative OC" are turning to the dark side. The mini-libs are moving into these areas because that's where the jobs are and as they move they slowly erode the population towards the liberal bent.
I'm afraid it's too late to make a California with brains. We'd end up with Kalifornia-lite.
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