California secessionists have launched their Calexit signature-gathering drive, riding a wave of momentum churned up by the inauguration of President Trump.
Organizers of the Yes California Independence Campaign posted on their website Friday a downloadable online petition for volunteers circulating a day after the proposed ballot measure was cleared by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla.
The committee has 180 days to collect at least 585,407 valid signatures to qualify the initiative for the November 2018 ballot.
Recent polls show support for California nationhood falls well short of a majority, but that the idea is catching on with voters.
A Reuters/IPSOS poll released Tuesday found 32 percent of California residents surveyed support seceding from the union as the state’s staunchly liberal voters recoil from the Republican president.
“A third of Californians support #Calexit, Trump is coming after our undocumented immigrants & sanctuary cities,” Yes California said in a Friday tweet. “Come on Sacramento! Join us!”
The 1-in-3 figure represents a surge from a Hoover Institution Golden State Poll released Jan. 19, which found 27 percent of Californians favor Calexit, a term coined after last year’s Brexit vote in which British voters broke from the European Union.
“Among partisans, Democrats were more likely to support Calexit than Republicans, but in the wake of a presidential election, one has to wonder if those partisan differences are driven by dissatisfaction with the outcome of the presidential race rather than anything inherent in the politics of the Golden State,” said Tammy Frisby, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
The initiative would repeal a section from the California Constitution that declares the state is “an inseparable part of the United States and that the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.”
The measure would also place a referendum on the 2019 ballot on whether to form a separate nation on the November 2019 ballot.
California Democratic legislators have positioned themselves as a bulwark against the Trump administration, releasing a video on Inauguration Day ticking off their policy priorities and describing California as a “light to the nation.”
“California is more than a great place to live; it is a great source of innovation and an unrivaled economic engine. And so, for the next four years and beyond, we will work to be a light to the nation,” the California Democrats said in the video, called a #DearCalifornians letter.
Calexit supporters argue that the state would be better off as an independent nation given its ranking as the world’s sixth-largest economy and liberal politics. Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Mr. Trump in California 61 percent to 31 percent.
“In the age of Trump and Brexit, anything is possible, including a democratic and legal method for California to become its own nation,” Yes California President Marcus Ruiz Evans said in a Jan. 21 op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News.
Others have said good riddance, citing California’s $400 billion in unfunded liabilities and debt.
“As long as we can build a wall around you and you promise to keep the Hollywood loonies, I’m all for it!” Gail Bayne said on Yes California’s Facebook page. “Good luck [when] a hostile nation invades you.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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