One multi-millionaire venture capitalist’s plan to chop California up into six different entities has enough signatures to be included on the November 2016 ballot, organizers said Monday.
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper has had enough of California politics, citing that the state is too massive to run efficiently. He says that taxpayers and residents would be in better shape if California is divided into smaller slices with localized governments. So the powerful tech investor with a plan created a campaign and gathered enough signatures to be voted on, according to The Daily Mail.
“It’s important because it will help us create a more responsive, more innovative and more local government, and that ultimately will end up being better for all of Californians,” campaign spokesman Roger Salazar told The Daily Mail.
According to the proposal, the six states would have their own governments and elected officials — including congressional representatives. And the six states would be called Central California, North California, Jefferson (named after the third president), Silicon Valley, South California and West California.
The San Francisco Gate reported that by Monday afternoon, well over 800,000 signatures were collected — more than enough to put the proposition to a vote in the next election. Draper plans on filing the signatures with county registrars Tuesday.
Though the plan has earned enough support to get on the ballot, there have been bipartisan outbursts claiming the strategy holds no value and will die during the election.
“This is a colossal and divisive waste of time, energy, and money that will hurt the California brand,” Democratic political strategist Steven Maviglio, who has founded the the group OneCalifornia with GOP strategist Joe Rodota to fight the proposal, told The Daily Mail.
According to The San Francisco Gate, the plan has received most of its support from conservative voters, while democrats are trying to squelch the proposal out of fear that the overwhelming conservative support might keep Governor Jerry Brown from re-election. (RELATED: Calif. Governor Used Wildfires To Lecture GOP On Climate Change)
Draper conceded that earning enough votes to actually divide California is a shot in the dark but told the San Francisco Gate that the Golden State is “the worst-managed government in the country” and believes his plan would remedy most political and economic problems.