Tim Draper Gives Details on Initiative to Split California into Six States

Puerto Rico already voted in favor of becoming a state in 2012. The only thing stopping it from happening now is a simple majority vote of Congress[0].

Personally, I think giving Puerto Rico, a territory that already must obey federal laws, the ability to vote on said federal laws is a much higher priority than splitting up the states that we already have.

...which is to say, of course, that I imagine that none of these will happen anytime soon.

[0] As best as I could tell, the threshold for statehood really is this low.

It requires both State action and federal legislation. But the State action is clearly a required step.

> The only state that can split itself up is Texas, which was part of the agreement to bring the Republic of Texas into the union.

As your own link notes, that agreement specifically cited that it could only be done subject to the requirements of the Constitution, which would seem to mean that Texas can do it exactly as much as any other state can -- that is, with action of the State legislature and the federal Congress.

As your link indicates, a more accurate telling is "The only state that some proponents argue can split itself up is Texas".

The Civil War pretty much screwed this up and the division can happen elsewhere because of precedent.

If true, that makes the proposed state of North California a problem, since, while much smaller, it includes much of the breadth of industry and interests of the whole existing State -- the whole Urban-suburban-rural spread, the whole coastal-interior spread, etc.

I don't agree with his assessment of the problem, but if I pretend for a moment that I did, I can't see how his proposal solves it.

Central California farm communities would get more money diverted to waterways and agricultural projects. Northern Californians could finally get the school and public transportation spending up to the level that they're craving for. Southern California would probably build more highways and give more incentives to tourism and entertainment industries.

Status quo is nobody being quite happy with the status quo because those jerks from <insert region where you don't live> lobbied enough for <some cause you don't care much about>.

Electoral politics. It cuts both ways, though: many in CA would love to see TX split into several weaker states.

Not anywhere in any article I've seen -- just more platitudes about the size of government and vague allusions to California being ungovernable. Particularly frustrating in an article that announces it gives details.

There are indeed some issues that make California difficult to govern, but if I were picking them out, I'd put limits to the power of legislators to make policy without supermajorities and the initiative process itself pretty far above the idea that we just don't have enough state lines in the region ("Hi, I think state government is a terrible problem and to solve it we should make 5 more of them.")

It seems like a good guess that what Draper really means by "ungovernable" is that as the balance of power and philosophy now lies, there are some personal business or political goals that he's unable to bring to pass, despite significant wealth or influence.

I tend to think that the comments on electoral statistics have this right. It is an attempt to tilt the Senate and Electoral College.

[edit] the map given in the proposal is not really that good based on voting / land use - industry. California is more vertical than horizontal and coastal / interior divides.

It would not be a bad idea to hand over an area east of Sacramento to be joined with Nevada.

As far as naming goes, Silicon Valley sucks. Silicon Valley is too small to be a viable state economically. A state needs some diversity in it. A coastal chunk from Monterrey Bay north up to and including Napa would be more realistic but that is not Silicon Valley.

Top Blue - I believe this is a mountainous region, not much industry.

Purple - Massive forest area (on the coast at least), also small population and not much industry

Yellow - North Bay, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Sacramento. Lots of industry, technology and money. Large population as a whole spread out fairly evenly across the region, so lots of medium sized towns and small cities (S.F, Oakland, San Jose, Palo Alto, etc.etc.). Industry includes the big names you know, Google, Facebook, Apple, as well as large research facilities (I believe NASA has a large centre there). Lots of Universities as well.

Red - Some farm-land, mountainous further inland. I believe cattle, cheese, and some fruit orchards.

Green - Great farmland. Grapes and wine region, orchards, lots of cattle land. Moderate populations, towns like San Luis Obispo (great part of California if you haven't visited).

Orange - Massive populations of Los Angeles also medium sized cities of San Diego, Palm Springs/Desert. Massive industry throughout the area serving the population and the industries of Los Angeles. LA is a massive manufacturing hub (clothing, automobiles, the list goes on and on). Massive sea port at Long Beach (there may be others too).