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Wednesday, June 13, 2018

California could become three states?

 Tim Draper who's spearheading this initiative is probably thinking though I also recognize that splitting up the largest state in the union will still prove to be difficult:
An initiative to divide California into three states has received enough signatures to qualify it for the November ballot, the California secretary of state's office confirmed Tuesday.

The three-states campaign, dubbed “Cal-3,” submitted more than 600,000 signatures.

Tim Draper, a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capital investor, sponsored the ballot measure to divide America’s most populous state into three jurisdictions, the Mercury News of San Jose, Calif., reported.
I wrote two posts about California dreams in March. Unfortunately in recent years those dreams have been dashed. The "golden state" like many states have some undeniable issues, unfortunately since it's an important state those issues tend to get magnified! Remember it's been in the news that they have a booming homeless population and it's bad enough where you see videos of tent cities in the state. Unimaginable in a state where people go not just for the nice weather, but they go for the opportunities out there.

BTW, Mr. Draper states:
“California government has rotted,” Draper told the Mercury News last month. “We need to empower our population to improve their government.”
....
“Three states will get us better infrastructure, better education and lower taxes,” Draper told the Times in an email. “States will be more accountable to us and can cooperate and compete for citizens.”
You know as an aside sometimes I wonder if California would be better served by a larger legislature. Perhaps akin to the type of legislature that New Hampshire has - which is a very small state senate though a very large state house of representatives. If you get election from the one of 80 districts in California you would represent at least 465,000 people however in New Hampshire if you gain a seat out of 400 from 205 districts you would be representing at least 3,300 residents. Granted New Hampshire is a much smaller state that California. New Hampshire has only 24 senators in their state legislature, California has 40.

See I don't live in California and I'm coming up with some reforms. It's safe to say those who choose to live out west have to eke out some major reforms. They need to shake up their political system, not that I myself have them, but it's necessary as they seem to have a number of issues on a number of fronts they need to address.

California has a top two electoral system which means the top two candidates will be determined in a primary - regardless of party - will face off in the Novemeber general election. The one to watch will be the governor's race between Gavin Newsome and John Cox (who was formerly a perennial candidate in Illinois). Since Cox seems to have the endorsement of President Trump this race though a long shot could become very interesting in the long run.

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