Proposal To Break California Into 3 States Could Make November Ballot
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Voters could get a chance to decide whether California should be split into three states this November.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper, who authored an initiative to break up the Golden State, says it has received enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Draper says the initiative, which he calls the "CAL 3" has more than 600,000 signatures and will be submitted to election officials next week.
The initiative needed signatures from 365,880 registered voters – 5 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2014 election – to qualify for the ballot.
"This is an unprecedented show of support on behalf of every corner of California to create three state governments that emphasize representation, responsiveness, reliability and regional identity," Draper said.
Splitting California into three states would require congressional approval.
The initiative proposes a central state that would consist of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and San Benito counties; a southern state made up of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera and Mono counties; and the 40 remaining counties grouped into a northern states.
The new states would be named by its residents, according to the initiative.
Draper said he conceived the initiative out of a belief that "the citizens of the whole state would be better served by three smaller state governments while preserving the historical boundaries of the various counties, cities and towns."
Steven Maviglio, a longtime Democratic Party political consultant who was a co-chair of the effort to oppose Draper's 2014 initiative to split California into six states, says "Splitting California into three and creating three new governments does nothing to solve our state's challenges other than tripling them."
"CAL 3" has no connection to efforts to have California secede from the United States.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)