Riverside County official wants 13 California counties to break away to create 5

July 12, 2011

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Riverside County official wants 13 California counties to break away to create

51st state

By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 17 hours ago

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Thirteen mostly conservative California counties would break

away to create a 51st state known as South California under a proposal by an

elected official.

Republican Jeff Stone has asked fellow members of the Riverside County Board of

Supervisors to support a motion to bring together officials from the 13 counties

to discuss the idea.

A vote on the proposed meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

Stone said California is too big to govern, a situation that has led the state

to raid local government coffers because of runaway spending. He knows it will

be a challenge to create another state but doesn't believe it's an impossible

task.

" We are sending a message, " Stone told the Los Angeles Times.

The effort marks the latest in scores of secession movements in California

dating back to the 1850s that aimed to cleave the state and split counties and

cities.

Even if leaders from the 13 counties got serious about secession, the U.S.

Constitution says no new state can be formed without the consent of Congress and

the state legislature.

An email message left by The Associated Press for Stone's chief of staff, Verne

Lauritzen, was not immediately returned.

Gil Duran, a spokesman for California Gov. Jerry Brown, said Stone's proposal is

" a supremely ridiculous waste of everybody's time. "

" If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing

laws, then there's a place called Arizona, " Duran told the newspaper.

Stone's version of South California would not include Los Angeles County.

Instead, it would encompass coastal Orange and San Diego counties, and more

sparsely populated, inland areas such as Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings,

Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Riverside, San Bernardino and Tulare counties.

Combined, those counties have about 13 million people.

Stone also proposed that South California would have a part-time Legislature

with no term limits as well as a newly built capitol building.

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