California county votes to study option to form new US state

A county with 2.2 million residents has voted to study the option to secede from California and form a new US state.

Californians as a whole largely continued the Golden State trend of voting for progressive leaders and issues in November’s midterms, but voters in San Bernadino County, the fifth most populous in the state and the largest in the country by area, are so unsatisfied with the leadership at the state level that they voted to consider leaving the state, according to The Associated Press.

County voters approved an advisory ballot proposal by the smallest of margins, which tells local leaders to study the option of leaving the state of California.

The county spans large rural areas between Los Angeles and the state border with Nevada but also includes urban areas east of LA.

A new US state hasn’t been created since Hawaii became one in 1959.

The county has faced a longtime struggle with the increasing cost of living. What makes the state secession unlikely is that the California Legislature and Congress would have to approve the move.

The AP noted the significance of such a vote coming from a racially diverse area with people from various political persuasions.

San Bernadino spans 20,000 square miles (51,800 square km) – more than nine other US states.

The vote reveals the alienation that many feel in the county in relation to the California statehouse which has been controlled by Democrats for decades, and has struggled to take steps forward on issues such as homelessness, the increasing costs of housing, and rising crime, despite residents paying high taxes compared to the rest of the US.

Apart from brief stints of Republican control, the California state assembly and state senate have been controlled by Democrats since the late 1950s.

Curt Hagman, the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, which put the proposal on the ballot, told the AP that there’s “a lot of frustration overall” with state leadership and how taxes are allocated, with not enough investments coming to San Bernadino County.

Mr Hagman said that “it’s been a rough few years,” citing inflation, and conflicts related to California’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The chair of the San Bernardino County Democratic Party, Kristin Washington, told the AP that the ballot measure was a political ploy to get conservative voters to go to the ballot box and not an actual poll of how residents feel.

“Putting it on a ballot was a waste of time for the voters,” she told the news agency. “The option of actually seceding from the state is not even something that is realistic because of all the steps that actually go into it.”

Democrats outnumber GOP voters in the county by 12 per cent, but in November, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom lost the county by five per cent.

Last year, he resoundingly beat back an effort to recall him – an effort spurred on by opposition to his pandemic policies that included closing schools and businesses.

California was one of the first states to switch to online schooling, and one of the last to go back to teaching in person.

San Bernadino County has been a Republican stronghold in the past, but a population boom has meant that it’s become more diverse and is now home to more Democrats.

According to the California State Library, the state has survived 220 attempts to break it into as many as six states during its 172-year existence.

Ontario is one of the biggest cities in the county. Mayor Paul Leon told the AP that “everybody outside this county thinks we are the wild, wild West”.

He argued that despite it being so large, the county receives a “pittance” in state and federal funding for roads, courthouses, and public transport.

The director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, William Deverell, told the AP that he tends to be “very skeptical of these secession maneuvers”.

“The state’s problems are not likely to be addressed by the jurisdictional chopping block,” he added.

He said he was questioning the “hubris” in the belief that “if only this part of the state could go its own way, as we aren’t the root of the problem”.

While California’s economy looks set to become the fourth largest in the world, many inland areas are struggling.

As many as 352 companies moved their headquarters from the state between 2018 and 2021, a Hoover Institution study found. The 39 million state population is shrinking for the first time in decades, as some seek less expensive housing and lower taxes.

A political scientist at Claremont McKenna College, Jack Pitney, pointed to gas prices, cost of living, and real estate prices when telling the AP that “a lot of Californians are unhappy in many ways”.

“The vote on secession was like smashing the china. It’s a way of getting attention but in the end, it doesn’t accomplish much,” he added.

Mr Hagman said the vote is a significant show of frustration with the leadership coming out of the state capital of Sacramento, but that he doesn’t want to see the county leave the state.

“I want to remain part of California right now,” he told the AP. “I’m proud to be a Californian.”