Oregon counties seek to secede from Oregon & join Idaho

[Contumacious]

Rural Oregon counties vote to discuss seceding from state to join ‘Greater Idaho’

https://www.foxnews.com/media/rural-...-greater-idaho

By Teny Sahakian | Fox News

A deep political divide between urban and rural areas has conservative residents feeling ignored by the state government

(And right there, shows the disconnect that the media organs have. No, Teny, that would would make them happy to have the state government "ignore" them - AF)

A group called Move Oregon's Border is leading an initiative to have Oregon's rural counties secede from the rest of the state and join Idaho.

Mike McCarter, 72, a retired plant nursery worker and lifelong Oregonian, has been leading the effort for almost two years. He said he and many others are eager to “get out from underneath the chokehold of Northwestern Oregon.”

“We’ve watched the shift take place in Oregon politics where the primary concern of the Legislature is Northwest Oregon. That’s where 78% of the state’s population is based. They tend to forget that every law that you pass in the state affects us out in the rural economies, too,” McCarter told Fox News.

He highlighted a number of benefits that come with being a citizen of Idaho, including lower taxes and generally more freedoms. Idaho is ranked No. 3 in regulatory freedom whereas Oregon is ranked No. 43, according to the Cato Institute.

Oregon’s state politics took a sharp left turn during the past 20 years, something that has not gone unnoticed by more conservative residents in the state’s rural communities. McCarter pointed to a recently passed law that made Oregon the first state to decriminalize possession of hard drugs.

“Now you look and you say, 'well, if you're homeless, if you're a hard drug user, if you're a rioter, if you're an illegal, come to Oregon - we’re a sanctuary state and you won't get in trouble.' And that's not the way conservatives feel in Oregon.”

Portland has seen months of violent protests and riots with little government intervention since the death of George Floyd in May in Minneapolis.

“Idaho is not a sanctuary state at all, and they want to protect their citizens. That's comforting, to live in a state like that who enforces the laws and not let the lawbreakers go free.”

A measure requiring local officials to meet on the subject of changing the border was on the ballot in four counties this past election. It passed in Jefferson and Union counties and was voted down by small margins in Douglas and Wallowa counties.

McCarter’s goal, however, is to get the issue as much attention as possible, since the final decision will lie with Oregon and Idaho state legislatures. The group hopes 19 of Oregon’s southern and eastern counties will secede and become part of what they call “Greater Idaho.”

If successful, the border change would no longer make Idaho a land-locked state, giving it two coastal counties, something McCarter said could be a key selling point for the neighboring state.

Move Oregon’s Border will continue collecting signatures for the May 2021 local elections in 11 other counties.

Indeed

Oregonians should be allowed to join Greater Idaho



.

[parocks]

That 78% would appear to be an imposing obstacle - they have veto power over the deal. How many of that 78% want to rid themselves of those pesky Oregonians who want to leave Oregon and join Idaho?

Are there resources in the seceding counties (19 of Oregon’s southern and eastern counties) which the 78% would not want to lose control over?



So a measure to meet and discuss (not secede) failed in two of the four counties (out of 19) in which the measure was on the ballot. That's not a promising sign.

As much as I'd like to see it - it's not in the cards. I mean, I live in Southern Illinois and would love to see the Illinois counties outside the Chicago metro area join with Missouri or Indiana - but it ain't gonna happen. The only way it's ever going to happen is if more people live in the rural counties than in the cities - and that kinda defeats the whole purpose.

If people from the red parts of the state started going to the blue parts and killing a lot of people, voters might think "maybe it's better to let them go". There are a lot of different methods that could be used.

This "leaving one state and joining another" thing is news to me. I like the idea of carving out the tiny blue dots from red states.

Maybe push that idea. Hey Philadelphia, you'd be much better off if you joined NJ, DE or MD.

It's a fun game, who goes where?

If NH took the red counties of Maine, NH would be red. Perhaps the bluer part of NH can join Maine? Little useful change to CT, RI, MA.

Upstate NY can join PA. PA becomes red. Most of Virginia outside of the DC burbs can join west virginia. That's red. Or they could go to Kentucky. Much of NC, western, could go to Tenn or SC. Southern Georgia could join Florida. Then on the west coast, East Oregon can join Idaho, East Washington can join Idaho. Parts of Colorado can join Wyoming. Parts of New Mexico can join Texas. Maybe parts of Arizona and much of Nevada can follow that way, and maybe even parts of California.

In reality, this doesn't end up with the best result. In the Northeast, a big state with Boston, New York, Philly, Baltimore and NorVa would make many of the surrounding states red. Basically, the I-95 state would be very blue and have a lot of electoral votes.

[James_Madison_Lives]

https://coronanews123.wordpress.com/...ugees-nm-next/

Oregon Counties Eye Secession to Idaho, COVID Vaccine “Refugees.” New Mexico-Texas Next?

[Anti Federalist]

///

[James_Madison_Lives]

Red America will have the last laugh. We don't need the commie cities. They need us.

[jkr]

anyone see wwZ?

[RJB]

They wanna make Puerto Rico and Washington DC as states for more senators, they should make rural CA and OR states.

[Occam's Banana]

Oregon Counties Eye Secession to Idaho [...] New Mexico-Texas Next?

Or Colorado-Wyoming ...

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1355151729986326528

[Anti Globalist]

Hopefully we'll continue to hear talks of secession.

[oyarde]

[dannno]

[Swordsmyth]

All red counties in solid blue states should pursue this.

[tod evans]

All red counties in solid blue states should pursue this.

Just as red states should move to expel blue cities.

Give 'em the boot!

[Anti Federalist]

Stop talking and start doing.

[Okie RP fan]

Education is key with secession.
The pampered and ill-educated masses in this country don't want to rock any boats or cause any waves, so to speak, so the thought of secession frightens them to near petrifaction.

If more people were taught that life would largely go on as normal, but arguably more free (in most of these cases) from a governance point of view, then I'm sure more people would hop on board. And right now is the best time with as many people who are disenfranchised from the current system. The selling narrative can be "the current system is FUBAR, so why not try this?"

[Anti Globalist]

Keep up this talk of secession. Hopefully it'll click with everybody.

[Anti Federalist]

The pampered and ill-educated masses in this country don't want to rock any boats or cause any waves, so to speak, so the thought of secession frightens them to near petrifaction.

$#@! the masses, they had their chance to get educated.

Do to them what the Marxists do, only worse:

"Do what we say or we'll hurt you and $#@! your $#@! up".

[phill4paul]

$#@! the masses, they had their chance to get educated.

Do to them what the Marxists do, only worse:

"Do what we say or we'll hurt you and $#@! your $#@! up".

Exactly. We tried to educate them. Turns out they educated us on how $#@! is going to have to go down.

[libertasbella]

I predict that by the end of the 21st century America will be reduced to Los Angeles, New York City and Idaho.

[Swordsmyth]

I predict that by the end of the 21st century America will be reduced to Los Angeles, New York City and Idaho.

Idaho?

[parocks]

Idaho?

Well, if Idaho is saying they'll take the counties from the other states.

I like thinking about changing the borders of the states.

It seems easiest to me to just break up states into 2 states, but apparently it's technically easiest for counties to leave states and join existing states. Idaho can easily grab counties from Washington, Oregon, Nevada, California. And, in theory, Washington is left with Seattle, Oregon is left with Portland, Nevada is left with Las Vegas, California is left with Los Angeles to San Francisco. After that, it doesn't seem like Montana, Utah and Wyoming have any real needs to break up, but if large parts of California become Idaho, Idaho could expand through Arizona and New Mexico and Colorado, leaving behind Phoenix, Santa Fe/Albuquerque, Denver. If Utah becomes bad because Salt Lake City, easy to grab the counties there.

In addition to Idaho, a good state in the East to add counties to would be West Virginia. Almost solid red, and surrounded by red counties in other states. Can tack on most of Pennsylvania, leaving Philly behind, panhandle of Maryland. Much of upstate New York. Then Ohio without Cleveland, then up to Michigan without Detroit. Western Virginia, or Virginia without Northern Virginia. Much of North Carolina, leaving Raleigh Durham behind, basically the Western part for sure. Kentucky would be as suitable as West Virginia for expansion. Combine them (or not), then grab Illinois not Chicago, Wisconsin without Milwaukee, Minnesota without Minneapolis St Paul. Missouri without St Louis. Iowa without Des Moines.

So, you're basically using the Appalachians as the GOP base to add counties from. It's pretty easy to grab the rural counties from the states with the big cities with all the voter fraud. After that, maybe cities like Toledo, Ohio might want to join nearby Detroit. Cleveland + Erie, PA + Buffalo, NY makes sense. Maybe PA can stay the same, but New Jersey can take Philadelphia. Upstate NY joining Pennsylvania would change PA to Red.

You can get from the Pacific Ocean in Oregon, California and California, to the Chesapeake Bay between Baltimore and Philadelphia without going through any Blue counties. You can't do anything like that without going through Red counties.

Looking at the map, there might be some concerns about a whole bunch of weird looking state borders. The state borders are often straight lines and grabbing counties at random from other states might make those borders looking worse, and it's possible that would be a concern to some.

Some changes would have less impact than others. Much of North Carolina, Western and Central North Carolina can be moved to Tennessee. Much of Virginia, Western and Central, can be moved to Kentucky. Virginia goes cleanly into West Virginia as well. Western Maryland panhandle becomes West Virginia. Virginia goes cleanly into West Virginia as well. People in Western Virginia are likely not too happy about their state being the home of the CIA and other things. "Virginia, CIA country" signs. It seems to me that Virginia, which has typically been a GOP state for quite a few years, being a Democrat state is likely to piss off quite a few of those 80/20 GOP counties in Western Virginia.


https://dailyyonder.com/for-most-ame...de/2020/12/17/ decent presidential by county.

[Okie RP fan]

$#@! the masses, they had their chance to get educated.

Do to them what the Marxists do, only worse:

"Do what we say or we'll hurt you and $#@! your $#@! up".

Exactly. We tried to educate them. Turns out they educated us on how $#@! is going to have to go down.

I can't argue with this. It holds as much water now as anything. We've tried, we were ignored, here we are.

[Anti Federalist]

Five Oregon Counties Vote to Secede and Join Idaho

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...nd-join-idaho/

Michael Patrick Leahy 19 May 2021

Five rural Oregon counties voted on Tuesday to secede from the state of Oregon and join the state of Idaho.

The Idaho Statesman reported:

Thousands of people in eastern Oregon voted Tuesday for their elected officials to consider ditching their state and becoming part of Idaho.

Voters in Sherman, Lake, Grant, Baker and Malheur counties all voted for ballot measures that would lead to them becoming Idahoans. People in Union and Jefferson counties had already voted in favor during the November election. . .

The vote is only the first step of the “Greater Idaho” project, which would allow some Oregon counties to join a state that advocates say more closely aligns with their political preferences.

Breitbart News reported in April that a political action committee and a new 501 c 4 non profit group are driving efforts that will allow rural counties in Oregon to join Idaho:

Move Oregon’s Border is a Political Action Committee formed in 2019 that focuses on Oregon ballot initiatives. In March, Move Oregon’s Border founder Michael McCarter announced the establishment of a 501 c 4, Citizens for Greater Idaho, which will focus “on Idaho, Oregon, and beyond, to support the vision of Move Oregon’s Border.” . . .

Petitions gathered by Move Oregon’s Border have forced the placement of ballot initiatives to change the border between Oregon and Idaho for consideration by voters in nine Oregon counties.

Ballot initiatives to change the border between Oregon and Idaho have already been voted on in four Oregon counties. Two counties (Union and Jefferson) voted in favor of moving the border in November, while two additional counties (Douglas and Wallowa) voted against changing the border.

On May 18, the ballot initiative to change the border between Oregon and Idaho will be voted on in five additional counties: Baker, Lake, Grant, Malheur, and Sherman.

“Move Oregon’s Border continues to collect signatures in seven other counties where no vote has occurred yet: Curry, Josephine, Jackson, Klamath, Harney, Morrow, and Umatilla counties,” the group’s website states.

Move Oregon’s Border founder and president of Citizens for Greater Idaho Mike McCarter said in a statement released on the group’s website on Wednesday:

This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon. If Oregon really believes in liberal values such as self-determination, the Legislature won’t hold our counties captive against our will. If we’re allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well.

The statement added:

The election results this week were much stronger than the results in November. “We got on the ballot too early in those counties, before voters had heard of the idea, and before we could educate them on the benefits of joining Idaho, and before we had money for ads. The results this week prove that we were right to spend a little money on educating the voters in these counties. We only spent a tenth of the spending per voter that a typical state senator campaign spends, but it was enough. Now we need to raise funds for the next counties. Greater Idaho will be on the ballot in Douglas, Harney, and probably several other counties where citizens are still collecting signatures or asking county commissioners to put it on the ballot,” McCarter said. “Crook County commissioners invited us to a meeting next week to discuss putting it on the ballot.”

In Oregon, several state legislators have been quoted in the press in support of the border relocation. Reasons the Oregon Legislature should want to let rural Oregon join Idaho were given by McCarter: “In 2019, the average northwestern Oregonian wage-earner subsidized eastern/southern Oregon counties by $367 per year. Are they willing to keep paying that, just so that Oregon looks big on a map? Letting these counties go would mean the Oregon Legislature would avoid gridlock when Republican legislators walk out to try to deny a quorum. We list more reasons at greateridaho.org”

“The signature-gathering effort ‘to gain political refuge from blue states, was hampered last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s now picking up some momentum. Several prominent elected officials in Idaho, including Gov. Brad Little, have expressed support for the movement,” Oregon Live reported on Wednesday.

[Pauls' Revere]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...joining-idaho/

Five eastern Oregon counties voted Tuesday to consider joining Idaho, the biggest victory to date for the movement to split off from the Democrat-controlled blue state by redrawing state lines.

Citizens for Greater Idaho said that the five rural counties — Sherman, Lake, Grant, Baker and Malheur — approved measures directing county commissioners to promote the concept of border relocation, joining two other counties, Union and Jefferson, that did so in November.

The Nov. 3 election also saw two other counties defeat the Greater Idaho proposal, but on Tuesday, all five counties with the initiatives on the ballot passed them.


-Cool. I guarantee these counties have nothing in common with the rest of Oregon anyways. Best to just leave.

[phill4paul]

Better than good that's Great!

I guess the question is will Idaho have them. If Idaho will then the counties need to stop supporting Oregon, pay Idaho taxes, etc.

[Swordsmyth]

All red counties in blue states need to get on this bandwagon.

[TheTexan]

If this works, this could be a magnificent loophole to the "illegal secession" problem. Idaho could grow into a giant behemoth that covers 80% of the central US.

Of course, I suspect that this is a recognized threat, and would not be allowed to happen. At least, not without resistance.

[Cleaner44]

I support this. I wonder how realistic it is...

[Pauls' Revere]

All red counties in blue states need to get on this bandwagon.

Yep.

[Pauls' Revere]

Waiting to see how many counties in Northern California jump onboard?