California split gains momentum

Photo / Thinkstock

A radical plan to carve up California into six separate states has enough support to be put to a public vote, campaigners say.

A petition backing the proposal, which was originally conceived by Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper, has collected the 808,000 signatures necessary to be included on the election ballot in November 2016.

The non-profit "Six Californias" campaign announced via Twitter that it would submit the petition in the state capital, Sacramento, today.

California is the most populous state in the US, home to 38 million people.

Draper, the founder of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson - known for its investments in Hotmail, Twitter, Tesla and Skype - claims the state is so large and diverse as to be "ungovernable". He has spent almost US$5 million ($5.7 million) of his own money to promote the idea.

Draper's redrawn map of California would include a new state called Silicon Valley, taking in San Francisco and many of the world's most successful tech firms, such as Apple and Google. The new mini-state would also include Draper's home in Atherton, which Forbes ranked as the most expensive postcode in the US.

San Diego and Orange County would become part of South California. Los Angeles would become the capital of West California. The abundant farmland surrounding the cities of Bakersfield, Fresno and Stockton would be known as Central California, while North California would encompass Sacramento and the nearby wine lands. The region in the far north of the state, abutting Oregon, would be renamed Jefferson.

However, political experts and the proposal's critics say Six Californias has almost no chance of succeeding.

- Independent