'Greater Idaho' Movement Pushing For Conservative Parts Of Oregon, NorCal To Join Idaho
REDDING (CBS13) – Some people in Oregon are petitioning to leave the state – but they don't want to move, they want to move the Oregon-Idaho state line.
And if their plan is successful, the next step would be to get parts of some far northern California counties to join as well.
Frustrated by what they call "liberal policies," the Greater Idaho group has been collecting signatures for a ballot measure to move a sizable chunk of Oregon counties to Idaho.
"We want the voices of these mostly rural areas to be heard in our state capital & not be drowned out by the large cities and urban areas," the movement states on why they are pushing for Greater Idaho.
The plan would separate the more populated – and Democratic Party-leaning – metros of Portland and Eugene from the rest of the state, making the more rural areas of southern and eastern Oregon part of Idaho.
Oregon has steadily become a more liberal-leaning over the past couple of decades, with Ronald Reagan being the last Republican to win the state back in 1984. Idaho has been a GOP stronghold for much longer, with the last Democrat winning the state being Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
If Greater Idaho's plan is successful, and it would require enough votes in both state legislatures and an act of Congress, the group would then move to try and get several conservative-leaning California counties to join as well.
The far northern California counties in the sights of the group would be Siskiyou, Modoc and Shasta – parts of the state where the State of Jefferson independence movement, which echoes Greater Idaho's ideology, has taken root.
That new map would make Redding and Red Bluff part of Greater Idaho, while Chico would effectively become a border city.