The movement aimed at taking 15 counties away from Oregon and adding them to Idaho is making progress and may actually be approved, at least by the state. The move would not change Congress much since Idaho will still only have 2 Senators and in the House, the red counties are already electing conservatives. Eleven counties have already approved the move with other counties yet to vote. Talks have started between the legislatures in Idaho and Oregon to decide the best way to make the move.
For Oregon, there would be bad news and good news. The bad news is that they will lose all of the tax money from the seceding counties. But, that would be partially offset by no longer having to provide services to the rural communities, being able to close all state offices, and being able to sell the state-owned property that will now be in Idaho. The good news is that they will totally control all elections in the remainder of Oregon.
Here is the story from the Daily Mail.
The leader of east Oregon’s plan to leave liberal Portland behind and join conservative Idaho is moving fast.
Mike McCarter has a $70,000 budget for lobbyists in the two states, has seen allies introduce legislation in Oregon last month and has a bill ready to go in Idaho that would accelerate discussions for 15 counties to jump the border.
If it works, he says other red counties will have a model for how to dump their urban, Democratic rulers.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELThe leader of the Greater Idaho Movement runs the campaign from a cramped office in a cabin outside La Pine.
Its walls are decorated with the head of a musk deer and muzzle-loading rifles.
It could not be further from the image of Oregon as a haven for woke politics, where a majority voted to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020, where coastal valleys provide the perfect climate for the delicate pinot noir grape and where the liberal lifestyle was sent up in the TV comedy Portlandia.
As America divides between urban and rural, Democratic cities and Republican hiss and prairies, eastern Oregon is at the forefront of reshaping state lines.
Fair representation, said McCarter, lay across the border with Boise, rather than Oregon’s state capital Salem.
That remains a longshot. McCarter knows that Oregon is unlikely to give up 15 counties, 400,000 people, about 63 percent of its land without a fight.
But so far 11 eastern counties have voted in favor (or at least in favor of legislation requiring the county to discuss moving).
McCarter said his movement provided a road map for other parts of the country, where there is a growing divide between urban and rural America
‘Chicago controls Illinois. Atlanta controls Georgia. New York City controls all of New York state,’ he said. ‘And there’s a distinct difference between urban and rural.’
If this works, it would provide a road map for counties in other states who hate to be dictated to by a liberal legislature. But, that would only work if those counties are joining another state. In California, they want to create their own state. That would add 2 conservative Senators and the Democrats will never allow that to happen. They could join with Nevada but that would turn Nevada red and so that is probably not an option. I wish the secessionists good luck there in Oregon.
