Sutter County Supervisors Vote to Leave California, Join “State of Jefferson”

Sutter County, named for the Swiss-American settler who founded Sacramento and on whose Sutter’s Mill property the 1849 Gold Rush is presumed to have begun, this week joined several other counties in northern California in voting to ditch the Golden State and join a future 51st state called “Jefferson” straddling the California–Oregon border.

The measure before the county’s board of supervisors was adopted unanimously in a vote on July 22nd.  This follows a presentation before the board in March (reported on at the time in this blog) by Mark Baird, who heads the Jefferson Declaration Committee.

An original 1941 “State of Jefferson” flag on display
at a museum in Klamath County, Oregon.

According to a report on the vote in the Marysville Appeal-Democrat, proponents of statehood cite among their grievances “abuses of Sutter County by the state, including the imposition of certain taxes and fees, the state’s disregard of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes funds owed to many rural counties, excessive environmental regulation that ‘has crippled our industry, delayed important public projects, and greatly increased costs,’ and disregard of the county’s historic water rights, among others.”  The Jefferson movement today is largely a phenomenon of the far right.  One Sutter supervisor, Ron Sullenger, refers to Governor Jerry Brown as “an idiot” and hints darkly of a coming tyranny.

Ron Sullenger of the Sutter County board of supervisors taking
the oath of office.  (Can any readers identify this odd flag?)

In a non-binding referendum last month (discussed recently in this blog), 56% of voters in Tehama County, to the north, voted to join Jefferson, while similar measures were narrowly defeated in two counties along the border with Oregon: Siskiyou and Del Norte.  In addition, Modoc, Glenn, and Yuba counties in California have also passed secession resolutions in board-of-supervisor sessions.  (Interest on the Oregon side of the line in a State of Jefferson is far more tepid.)

A map of one proposed shape for a State of Jefferson, with counties that have
held referenda or adopted county board resolutions on secession highlighted.

The idea of a State of Jefferson is also (as discussed recently in this blog) part of the Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper’s “Six Californias” plan for subdivision of the state, which has recently qualified for a statewide referendum on the issue in 2016.

[For those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with my forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  The book, which contains dozens of maps and over 500 flags, is now in the layout phase and should be on shelves, and available on Amazon, by early fall 2014.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.  Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even though you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook.]

Related: hear the author of this blog discuss the Cascadia independence movement in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia in a recent interview for Seattle’s N.P.R. affiliate station KUOW-FM.  Click here to listen.

Related articles from this blog:

“‘State of Jefferson’ Backers Remain Optimistic, While 6-Way Partition of California Heads for 2016 Ballot” (July 2014)

“Yuba Is Latest California County to Join ‘State of Jefferson’ Movement” (April 2014)

“Sutter County Supervisors Mull Secession from California as Part of State of Jefferson” (March 2014)

“Study Finds Silicon Valley’s 6-Way California Split Is Doable” (Feb. 2014)

“Glenn County Becomes 4th California Jurisdiction to Opt to Join ‘State of Jefferson’” (Jan. 2014)

“Northern Californian Voters Torn between ‘State’ or ‘Republic’ of Jefferson” (Jan. 2014)

“10 Separatist Movements to Watch in 2014” (Dec. 2013)

“State of Jefferson Idea Won’t Go Away: Activists across Northern California Push for Statehood” (Nov. 2013)

“Silicon Valley Technocrats Plan to Flee U.S. for Libertarian Floating Cities” (Nov. 2013)

“Modoc County Joins Siskiyou in Seeking to Split from California as State of Jefferson” (Sept. 2013)

“Other California & Oregon Counties May Be Jumping on ‘State of Jefferson’ Bandwagon” (Sept. 2013)

“Siskiyou County, California, Takes the Plunge, Votes to Secede as Kernel of New ‘State of Jefferson’” (Sept. 2013)

“Colorado’s Secession Wildfire Spreads to Northern California: Siskiyouans Raise “State of Jefferson” Flag” (Aug. 2013)

“Let a Thousand Secession Petitions Bloom: The U.S. Balkanized, but Perhaps Only on the White House Website, Nowhere Else—but Most Importantly: What Does All This Have to Do with Topless Car Washes and the State of Jefferson?” (Nov. 2012)

“‘South California’ Statehood Movement Reignites in Election Year” (Sept. 2012)

Sutter County Supervisors Mull Secession from California as Part of State of Jefferson

Following similar moves by more northerly counties, Sutter County, in north-central California, is expressing interest in joining a secession movement to create a separate State of Jefferson within the United States.  Late last year, the boards of supervisors of Siskiyou and Modoc counties, along the Oregon border, voted to secede, and three California counties—Glenn, Siskiyou, and Tehama—will have questions about secession on the ballot in June elections this year.  In Siskiyou, there will be a separate question about a vaguely defined “Republic of Jefferson,” which proponents claim is more an autonomous region than a move to declare independence from the U.S.

This map, showing one of many possible boundaries of a State of Jefferson,
counties with active formal explorations of joining are circled in red.

At a board of supervisors meeting on March 25th in Yuba City, the seat of Sutter County, Mark Baird of the Jefferson Declaration Committee made a presentation before the board on secession from “Southern California.”  Though a vote was not on the meeting’s agenda, that could occur at future meetings.  Each member of the board expressed support for the idea, however, and a vote could be held some time soon.  A reporter noted that there was not single expression of opposition to Jefferson statehood at the meeting, which also elicited public comments.

Mark Baird giving a State of Jefferson presentation

Originally a movement in 1941 to create a State of Jefferson from a cluster of adjacent California and Oregon counties where residents felt they were getting insufficient government services, the modern Jeffersonian movement is aligned with the Tea Party and aims for less government.  Environmental regulation, gun rights, and “rural values” figure prominently in Jeffersonian rhetoric.

Is this the right metaphor?
Isn’t toilet paper supposed to take crap?

One Sutter supervisor, James Gallagher, said, “I’m seeing a growing discontent.  We are not represented, and we don’t have the ability to govern ourselves.  They tell us how to run our communities and what our values are, and they are certainly not our values.”

The original State of Jefferson flag and seal
(before the recent addition of a Gadsden rattlesnake fondling an assault rifle)

Another supervisor, Ron Sullenger, was more blunt.  “They’re in control.  We’re about to re-elect Governor Jerry Brown,” he said, “and he’s an idiot as far as I’m concerned.  How far will they let us go before they threaten to put all of you in jail for wearing a [State of Jefferson] T-shirt?”

Sutter County supervisor Ron Sullenger taking the oath of office last year.
And no, I have no idea what’s up with that particular flag.
Are four-pointed stars a Jefferson thing?

Sutter County was formed in 1850 and is the site of some of the earliest Anglo settlement in the state.  It is named for John Augustus Sutter, an immigrant from Switzerland on whose property, Sutter’s Mill, at the site of modern Sacramento, gold was discovered in 1848, ushering in the California Gold Rush.

There is also emerging pro-Jefferson sentiment in Yuba County.

[For those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with my forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  The book, which contains dozens of maps and over 500 flags, is now in the layout phase and should be on shelves, and available on Amazon, by early fall 2014.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.  Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even though you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook.]