By the Los Angeles Times‘ count, there have been more than 220 attempts to divide California, and all have failed. A new proposal by a Temecula politician would split off the conservative counties south and east of Los Angeles to form a Republican-dominated South California that would be home to 13 million people (minus those who flee after secession).

A spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown had this retort to the proposal: “If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there’s a place called Arizona.”

Unlike previous schemes that would divide San Francisco and Los Angeles from each other, the Democratic strongholds would remain in the same state. This would come as a relief to many of us in Los Angeles, although our northerly cousins find us annoying for our lack of knowledge about chard. — PZS

Los Angeles Times:

Supervisor Jeff Stone, a Republican pharmacist from Temecula, called California an “ungovernable” financial catastrophe from which businesses are fleeing and where taxpayers are being crushed by the burden of caring for welfare recipients and illegal immigrants.

On Tuesday, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors will consider Stone’s proposal to host a statewide summit for city and county leaders to sketch out a framework for secession.

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