A billionaire wants to split apart California

LOS ANGELES – Tim Draper, the billionaire venture capitalist and legend in the world of cryptocurrency, has an idea: Let’s split California into three separate states.

There are at least five reasons why this idea is doomed from the start, but first, here’s his case:

The way Draper sees it, smaller states would be run by more efficient and less bureaucratic governments as they compete for residents and business. Education, safety, infrastructure and health care would improve. Taxes would be lower. And the investor who made a name for himself funding tech giants like Hotmail, Skype and Tesla Inc. says he “won’t have to think anymore about moving myself, Draper Associates, the Draper Venture Network and Draper University out of California.”

Draper – who scored a huge windfall a few years back when he bought a load of bitcoin that had been seized by the U.S. government – has gone from being a Democrat to Republican to Libertarian to, well, his own party that believes California’s government’s problem is that it lacks competition. The party platform is simple: break up California.

Draper says he’s already gathered more than 600,000 signatures for his initiative, almost double the number he needs to get his plan on the ballot come Election Day. He still needs to get the signatures verified and confirmed by counties by June 13. “My goal is to get it on the ballot, and then it is up to Californians to see the beauty of a new empowerment, and run with it,” Draper Venture capitalist Tim Draper is the man behind a controversial plan to divide California into three states.

said by email.

Meanwhile, here’s what he’s got going against him: Last Time This Happened Was During the Civil War The last time the U.S. approved the breakup of a state was in 1863, when West Virginia moved to split with Virginia at the height of the Civil War.

Even then, it took a twoyear legal battle and presidential approval.

President Abraham Lincoln eventually signed off on the split, but he worried at the time about the precedent it would set for states going forward. There is no clear process for a breakup of a state.

Why Would Any Republican Want This? Even if Draper gets California’s voters to buy into the idea of a split, government law experts say the plan would probably take an act of Congress. (Again, there’s no clear-cut process.) And there’s no indication that Republicans in Washington would be amenable to a breakup.

If each of the three new California states – with a population of about 12 million to 14 million people – were granted two senators, Congress could be welcoming more Democrats into its chambers. Draper’s envisioned borders would form at least two solidly blue states.

“Why would any Republican want to create two more Democratic senators?” asked Jack Citrin, a professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley.

Executive approval is looking even less likely. President Donald Trump and California have been clashing on everything from immigration policy to environmental regulations. Trump’s in no mood to be doing favors for the Golden State.

Some Californians Just Want Out of the Entire U.S.

Draper’s three-state initiative has competition. Some similarly minded individuals, who are also pushing for better education and a tax overhaul, want California to remain whole but secede from the U.S. in a movement coined “Calexit.” The proponents say secession will promote peace and security, because being part of the U.S. makes the state a target for terrorism.

This movement has tried and failed in the past.