EL DORADO COUNTY — There’s a new effort by rural Californians to secede from the state. The movement calls for El Dorado County to become its own state, independent of California.
The initiative comes more than five years after the State of Jefferson movement failed in its attempt to secede from California.
The movement is spearheaded by Sharon Durst, a resident of El Dorado since 1999. She and her supporters have created a petition for people to vote on whether it should go forward.
He argues that people who live in the country rarely have a seat at the table when it comes to California politics and El Dorado County has no voice.
Durst is a longtime supporter of Jefferson Statehood, a proposal that would have combined several counties in northern California and southern Oregon to create their own state. But it failed in Congress.
Now, Durst points to cracks in the constitution for a possible opening to the creation of a new state.
“‘Congress shall have power to make and make all necessary rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property,'” Durst said, citing Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2 of the US Constitution. “I think we can make the argument that El Dorado County is ‘another property.'”
The new state would be called the Republic after the state of El Dorado. Durst and his supporters are already handing out flyers.
They will start delivering the petition soon. If they get more than 50 percent “yes” they will advance.
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