The group, organized with a council of county representatives and various committees, hopes to model their split after the state of West Virginia. That’s according to CBS, whose Sacramento affiliate filmed the reading in a sparsely filled conference room.
Claiming the authority of Article 4, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the aspiring 51st state plans to convince California’s Legislature to split the state before submitting the resolution to Congress.
The effort remains, to be clear, a long shot.
A California venture capitalist named Tim Draper sought in 2014 to split the Golden State into six parts, including the “State of Silicon Valley.” It failed to make the ballot.
New California’s work with regular California’s state Legislature won’t likely start in earnest until later this year or early next year, organizers told CBS.
“We have to demonstrate that we can govern ourselves before we are allowed to govern,” Tom Reed, a founder, told the network.
Source: USA Today