If I recall the story, when the State of Jefferson movement reemerged and was gaining ground a few years ago, they got more Northern Californians interested than they cared for. I guess many in the Bay Area didn't want to be involved with Southern California and their issues, and were talking about being part of the North. The Jeffersonians were horrified at the concept of having to deal with the Bay Area's liberal thinking, and were afraid that they would be the majority and exert the very same political influence that the State of Jefferson was trying to avoid, not to mention who would pay for the damage of the next big earthquake. At the time, there was evidently a serious discussion of there being three states, Jefferson, Northern California and Southern California.

There are some serious issue to be dealt with here as in many states. While the west isn't part of the bible belt by any means, the rural areas that are in the minority are generally fairly conservative compared to the majority in the urban areas that tend to be liberal.

I no longer support the Jefferson concept to extend as far east because of the number of "Oregano farms" for amateur pharmaceutical production. I would like to see the counties along the eastern border east of the Sierras (Inyo and north) to be their own state or join Northern Nevada or Eastern Oregon. I'm sure Northern Nevadans would gladly split off from Clarke County since Vegas et al has more residents than the rest of the state. Too bad Oregonians east of the Cascades wouldn't become their own state. If you watch out elections, they basically say Multnomah County has voted this way (generally weird and liberal Portland) and their aren't enough opposing votes in the rest of the state to override it.

I will say there is a simple reason California won't ever allow the state to divide - water. LA sucks the water out of the Owens Valley, Southern California exists only by pulling water out of Northern California (Shasta and Oroville) and the Colorado River. Doesn't the San Joaquin Valley also depend on Northern California water. San Francisco gets its water from Hetch Hetchy just north of Yosemite. Politicians in the cities will not let someone else control their water. Las Vegas has been looking up in the Ely region to buy water rights since the Colorado River allocations are used up. And don't forget power - none of the cities want dirty smelly power plants or industries in their neighborhood, but want full access tot heir advantages.

I believe Texas retained the right to split into as many as five states when the Republic joined the Union. The political aspect of all this is that if the states did divide, the House of Representatives are just reallocated according to population so in some cases might lose influence, but each new state would get two Senators.

Since this is a railroad discussion board - aren't we glad that railroads are under federal regulation and all these new states wouldn't be fouling up the system with their own ideas? Boy wouldn't this screw up the HSR plans ...