SoCal Conservatives Seek Secession

Conservatives in Southern California are seeking to form a new state—one that excludes liberal Los Angeles. Jeff Stone, a Republican county supervisor in Riverside, says that, because of a “completely dysfunctional” state government, “We must change course immediately or create a new state.” Other county supervisors in Riverside have approved Stone’s plan to organize a conference of California municipal leaders to discuss ways to fix state government—or to consider secession. (They insisted, however, that county money not be spent on the event.) It turns out that secession isn’t exactly a new idea in California: More than 200 proposals have been floated to break up the state since it was founded in 1850.