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)

Yuba Is Latest California County to Join “State of Jefferson” Movement

Glenn County, California, 2013

Last week, Yuba County, in northern California, became the latest county to join the recent push to secede as a separate “State of Jefferson.”  A vote by the county’s board of supervisors on April 15th—the day of the federal tax deadline and thus an emotional day for the Tea Party anti-federal-government types that energize Jeffersonian separatism—was two to one in favor of joining the new state, with additional supervisor absent for the vote.

Yuba County follows Siskiyou and Modoc counties, in the far north of the state, in passing supervisory-board resolutions favoring secession.  Siskiyou’s county seat is Yreka, which was a proposed capital for the original State of Jefferson idea, in the 1940s.  Originally, it was to include counties on both sides of the Oregon–California border, but Oregon counties have been half-hearted of late.  In addition to Siskiyou and Modoc, Glenn and Tehama counties will put referendum questions about secession on the ballot in June.  Sutter County is considering the idea, and (as reported last month in this blog) each member of its board of supervisors voiced support for secession.  Sutter and Yuba are at the extreme southern end of what is generally considered the northern, rural Jefferson region; they are practically at the edge of the San Francisco–Sacramento conurbation itself.

Near Yuba City, Pastor Dave Bryant, wearing a sacred ceremonial State of Jefferson hoodie,
opened a February 2014 town hall meeting on the Jefferson question with a prayer.

One of the yes votes in Marysville (Yuba’s seat) on the 15th was from Supervisor Roger Abe, who said afterward, “All of the comments I have received from my constituents is to support doing this.  The only negative arguments I have heard is the belief that it won’t succeed.  If the only negative is to say that it isn’t going to happen, that’s not bad.”

A copy of a draft Yuba County secession declaration
from the website http://jeffersondeclaration.net

Meanwhile, a different faction of Jeffersonians went on a television talk show this month to air its support for on a separate measure on the upcoming Siskiyou County ballot to create a vaguely defined parallel “Republic of Jefferson Territory” (a plan already discussed in detail in this blog).  In a roundtable taped at the College of the Siskiyous in the town of Weed, in Siskiyou County, Leo Bergeron, a Jefferson Republic proponent, explained, in the words of a local newspaper, that, under the June 3rd “Republic” referendum question, “Siskiyou County would be much like a Native American reservation, partly self-governed but still a part of the larger system, until ‘a better way’ of governance is developed.”

Anthony Intiso, Andy Grossman, and Leo Bergeron (at right) promoted
Siskiyou County’s “Jefferson Republic” idea in a recent television appearance.

[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 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 articles from this blog:

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