Secession Movement’s New, But Actually Very Old Groove

The Denver Post's Monte Whaley reports:

A new proposal to give rural Colorado residents more clout in the legislature by changing the way senators are apportioned goes hand-in-hand with the 51st state movement, proponents of both ideas say.

"As long as something changes and gives us some voice in what happens in this state, there is more than one way to skin a cat," Phillips County administrator Randy Schafer said…

Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, is advancing a new plan that shifts the emphasis to the state Senate.

His proposal would give one state senator to each of the six largest counties by land mass — Las Animas, Moffat, Weld, Mesa, Gunnison, and Rio Blanco. The remaining counties would be paired off, and one senator would be elected from each group.

We'll start with the bottom line that this story omits: the two "plans" mentioned in this story to "reweigh" legislative districts in favor of "greater rural representation," whether the so-called "Phillips County" plan to apportion House districts by county or Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg's referred measure to similarly alter Senate districts, are unconstitutional per the 1964 Supreme Court decision of Reynolds vs. Sims. This decision overturned the state of Alabama's legislative apportionment, stating that "the right of suffrage is denied by debasement or dilution of a citizen's vote," and that "the Equal Protection Clause requires substantially equal legislative representation for all citizens in a State regardless of where they reside."

What we're trying to say, as nicely as we can, is that Rep. Sonnenberg's proposal would solve the "problem" of rural "underrepresentation" by taking Colorado back to pre-civil rights era Alabama. When the principles of equal protection were impediments to "rural traditions" like racial segregation. George "Segregation Forever" Wallace was governor of Alabama when this case was argued. The 2009 Tuscaloosa News obituary of Charles Morgan, the attorney who prevailed in Reynolds vs. Sims sums up the importance of the decision:

One of [Charles Morgan's] many landmark litigations was Reynolds vs. Sims, an Alabama case dealing with the apportionment of the state legislature that he won in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964.

Ever heard of the “one-man, one-vote” principle? Well, it was established in part by the precedents set in that case, which dealt a decisive blow to the rural lawmakers who wielded power out of proportion to the number of people they represented. [Pols emphasis]

We've been accused of taking an unfairly dim view of the push by rural counties to secede from the state, or failing that, force the adoption of a "compromise" like the one described above–all in the name of ensuring rural citizens that, despite their small and in some cases dwindling numbers, their voice is "heard" in state government as urban areas become dominant. You know, like white rural Alabamians did in the early Sixties.

A look at the history of the issue should explain why we think this is not just silly, but also deeply wrong.

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Journos should should ask Gardner how he’ll actually vote on secession in Yuma County & Congress

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

In college, I led a petition drive to put an question on the student-council election ballot asking students if they wanted the university to stock suicide pills for optional use by students in the event of nuclear war.

The media had to take this seriously, because kids were actually voting on it, and it had its own internal logic, given the Cold War nuclear craziness around us at the time. But what college would stock suicide pills? Obviously, our core goal, even if we were also serious, was to promote our anti-nuclear agenda.

Same with the secession "movement." At it's heart, given the impossible odds of it happening, it's, duh, a media stunt, offering right-wing conservatives a platform to bash moderate Democratic legislation.

But, it's true that 11 counties will be voting to secede from Colorado, and so you can't blame reporters for feeling as though they have to take the stunt sort of seriously, without overdoing it like The Denver Post has done.

But taking it seriously means finding out if serious conservatives actually support it. This week, the New York Times covered the secessionists, quoting county-level GOP organizers and Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper as saying he takes it seriously. But, really, what else can the Democratic governor say?

More interesting is what serious Republicans like Rep. Cory Gardner would do on election day. As a resident of secessionist-hotbed Yuma County, he'll be voting on it next month. And if you take secession seriously, Gardner would eventually be voting on it in Congress, too, if it's gong to pass. Plus Gardner has long-standing ties to secession-organizer Sean Conway.

Will Gardner vote yes? (So far he's been vague.) What about the GOP gubernatorial candidates? Where do they stand?

When something smells like a crazy media stunt, and reporters still have to take it seriously, they should at least give readers enough opinions on the matter so they can try to understand what's really going on. In this case, getting the specific positions of Republicans, whose audiences goes beyond the way-right crowd in the secessionist counties, is key to offering a fair and accurate picture.

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Keeping Secession in Perspective

The Washington Post ran an interesting story today about a rapidly aging population in Iowa, which included some fascinating figures:

Iowa is one of eight states where the population hasn’t doubled over the last century. It’s the only state that hasn’t grown by at least 50 percent in the same time, said Tim Albrecht, a spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad (R). Iowa had 2.2 million residents in 1900; the 2010 Census estimated the state had 3 million residents.

Those numbers got us thinking about the Colorado counties that are planning to ask their citizens to vote on seceding from the state. There are 11 counties, by our count, that have approved a ballot measure asking voters if they want to secede from Colorado (which, of course, is only a very small step toward an otherwise implausible final outcome). Weld County, the ringleader of this circus, is far and away the largest of the 11 counties considering secession. With a 2012 population estimate of 263,691 residents, Weld County has grown at roughly the same rate as the State of Colorado since 1910 — increasing its population by about 650% in the past century.

But what about the other 10 counties in question (see chart below)? That's where things start to look a bit silly when news articles lump the counties together as a "movement." The combined estimated 2012 population of those 10 counties is 96,270 — or just about 37% of the entire population of Weld County. Some of those 10 counties saw modest population increases in the last 100 years, but four (Cheyenne, Lincoln, Sedgwick, and Washington) actually had more residents in 1910 than in 2012. 

So as we hear more about Colorado counties trying to secede from the state, it's important to keep in mind the amount of people we are talking about here. This isn't to say that the opinion of a rural county resident is less important than someone in Metro Denver — there are just fewer of those opinions by an exponential amount. Population shifts to the Front Range created more Front Range legislators, which is exactly how our representative Democracy is intended to function.

*Census data for Moffat County begins in 1920, not 1910.

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Greg Brophy Nimbly Dances Around Obvious Secession Questions

As the Grand Junction Sentinel's Charles Ashby reports:

[I]f some people in several of the counties in his expansive northeast Colorado Senate district have their way, the Wray Republican who’s seeking the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper soon could live in another state.

The state of North Colorado.

Brophy, who’s in town to attend this weekend’s Club 20 fall meeting, said that while he encouraged commissioners in numerous counties in his district to place a 51st state initiative on their November ballots, he isn’t necessarily in favor of the idea…

“I encouraged my county commissioners to move forward with this to catch the governor’s attention and the state Legislature’s attention,” Brophy said. “I think that most of the counties will vote to secede, but it won’t pass through the state Legislature.”

If such a vote passed, though, Brophy said he would be obligated to introduce a measure into the Legislature if his constituents demanded it of him, even though he’s not sure how he would vote on it.

Greg Brophy.

?Sen. Greg Brophy's (albeit wholly realistic) lack of confidence in the ultimate success of the movement to split a number of rural Colorado counties, including Brophy's own Yuma County, into the separate state of North Colorado, could upset secession's proponents. If somebody "encouraged" you to do something, but then told a newspaper on the other side of the state that you're not "necessarily in favor" of it, wouldn't you find that a little two-faced?

With that said, it makes an obvious kind of sense that Brophy would keep his options open on how to vote on legislation to allow these counties to secede even if he was its sponsor–after all, he needs to preserve his status as a serious contender for governor of, you know, the rest of Colorado. We've been wondering how Brophy intended to juggle these competing interests.

And the answer is, as delicately as he can.

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A Few Words on “Taking Secession Seriously”

One proposed North Colorado flag (via Progress Now).

Today, the Denver Post devotes most of its front page, and a great deal of interior space, to tremendously in-depth coverage of the movement by (mostly) northeastern plains Colorado counties to secede and form a new state informally referred to today as North Colorado. Under a headline quote beginning with the words "they feel they have been ignored," there's a photo of a forlorn 13-year-old rodeo contestant riding a mostly empty carousel in Kit Carson County.

We later learn, reading reporter Monte Whaley's front-page story, that the headline "they feel they have been ignored" quote is none other than Sen. Greg Brophy, Yuma County farmer and GOP candidate for governor–but that is curiously not attributed above the fold. We assume readers will figure that out? We were a little struck by that. And does that mean Brophy is a supporter of secession and a candidate for governor of the rest of Colorado? That's kind of weird. We digress.

All told there are eight articles published today in the Post on the "51st state" movement, telling stories from the various counties where the question will appear on the ballot, as well as two where it won't. Once you get past Sen. Brophy's self-serving headline, the stories go into details about the concerns of some rural residents, while keeping the extreme unlikelihood of success in what we suppose you can call a reasonable context.

?We have argued in this space that the mere talk of secession by elected Republican leaders in these mostly sparsely populated counties is not only a major long-term embarrassment to themselves, but actually detracts from what may be in some cases legitimate issues of equitable funding and services in rural areas relative to what the populous Front Range counties enjoy.

Nothing in the oddly expansive coverage of the secession movement in the Denver Post today changes our mind. 

Our original proposal for the flag of “Weldistan.”

?

Instead of working on solutions to their grievances, otherwise obscure county-level politicians are getting their proverbial fifteen minutes of fame pushing a totally unworkable secession proposal, or the related and equally unworkable "Phillips County Plan" to unconstitutionally gerrymander the legislature by county instead of population. The justifying issues voiced by rural residents interviewed in these stories range from fair questions about mandated staffing levels in a small rural hospital to mindless hot air about how city dwellers "just think that their hamburgers just show up at McDonald's." 

The state's new gun safety laws still rate a mention from secession proponents, but as part of a diffuse and in many cases poorly thought-out laundry list of grievances that vary from person to person. What binds them together is the willingness to break up the state of Colorado over these grievances–but you have to wonder if these aren't the kind of people who would propose radical solutions for, you know, just about anything.

Folks, we are straining to be polite about this. We have to admit that the absurdity of this whole business makes that difficult. As citizens of a state that we (and we hope our readers) love, from the mountains to the plains and even including those nasty, godless cities, we're starting to have a more emotive reaction to these radical idiots who happen to hold minor elected office seriously proposing to break up our great state. Our growing irritation with this nonsense is in direct proportion to the extent to which it is being taken seriously by the media. 

The fact is, Colorado's original boundaries are not going to change anytime soon. We can think of half a dozen better candidates for a "51st state," places like Washington, DC or Puerto Rico with far more legitimate cases to make for statehood. It's a simple fact that a huge majority of the state's population lives along the urban Front Range corridor, and rural counties are part of a state with an increasingly dominant urban electorate. The interdependency between urban and rural areas is significant, but there's just no way that 4,000 people in a rural county are ever going to "be equal" with 500,000 in any number of Front Range counties. As upsetting as that may be to that 13-year-old cowboy riding the carousel in Burlington, they shouldn't be.

In the end, we hope rural residents of our state are smart enough to see through this irresponsible waste of time concocted by unserious local politicians, and spend their energy on creating solutions instead of self-serving headlines.

View the original article here

Weld County Takes Silly Secession Sideshow To The Ballot

FOX 31's Thomas Hendrick:

The Greeley Tribune reported commissioners unanimously voted in favor of placing a 51st state initiate on the ballot.

The initiative reads: “Shall the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, in concert with the county commissioners of other Colorado counties, pursue becoming the 51st state of the United States of America?”

Weld County has had a series of meetings talking about seceding from Colorado in recent months. Commissioners have cited a feeling that northeastern Colorado counties are ignored by the state legislature…

Liberals have mocked the move on blogs and on Twitter, where some tossed around new names for a separate, northern Colorado state: “Weldistan”, “Tancredonia” and “Fracktopia.”

“It’s embarrassing for them, and it’s embarrassing for the people they represent,” Jason Bane, the founder of the blog ColoradoPols, told FOX31 Denver. “They complain that the legislature didn’t listen to them — they DID listen to them, but in a Democracy, there are lots of other people who have viewpoints, and they don’t all throw a tantrum just because a vote doesn’t go their way.”

As we've said before, conflicts between urban and rural areas of the state are nothing new. But pursuit of a totally unworkable "solution," if anything, debases what may be legitimate complaints about rural priorities in state government. We've always felt that this secession business was solely meant to provide political visibility to otherwise obscure county-level politicians, but it's fascinating to see their inability to tell, as many of us have explained to our young children, good "attention" from bad.

Bottom line: making a joke of your grievances rarely solves them.

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Secession: “North Colorado” Informational Meetings Wrap Up

As the Fort Collins Coloradoan's Erin Udell reports:

Northern Colorado residents spoke both in support and opposition of a proposed split between Weld County and the state of Colorado Wednesday night — wrapping up a series of public meetings held by the Weld County commissioners to gather citizen input on the possibility of a 51st state.

About 90 people gathered at Ault-Pierce Fire Station 1 to express their opinions, commend the commissioners and offer up alternative solutions at the fourth and final meeting. The previous three took place in Evans, Fort Lupton and Longmont late last week and early this week…

Mike Danielson, a third-generation farmer from Eaton, instead of showing support, said he thinks the whole idea of a split is “nonsense.” Danielson echoed his wife Beth’s thoughts. Earlier in the meeting Beth Danielson spoke out to oppose the proposed secession, calling it an “inane and arrogant plan” adding that “not everyone in rural Weld County agrees with you.”

We've seen a steady stream of news stories on the "North Colorado" secession movement this summer, primarily the brainchild of members of the Weld County Commission but at least paid lip service to by other elected officials in rural Colorado counties. The tone of these stories is generally the same, admitting the "unlikely" success of a movement to secede from the state of Colorado but playing up the "disconnect" between rural areas and the major population center of the urbanized Front Range. Republican politicians like new House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso point to the secessionists as a sign that Coloradans are ready for a "change in direction." Rural desires to secede from the tyrannical rule of that evil remote place known as Denver are supposed to be "taken seriously," insofar as they underscore the "frustration" the people of rural Colorado are feeling.

It's time to call this what it is: a steaming pile of embarrassing nonsense. The "plight" of rural Coloradans, the "tyranny" imposed by a few modest gun safety bills–or, heaven forbid, in increase from 10% to 20% of the mix of renewable energy in their electricity–sounds objectively ridiculous once it's explained. Rural elected officials feel like they carry "less weight" in Denver compared to counties with one hundred times the population, apparently ignorant of the fact that that's the way it should be. The proposed "alternative" solution to secession, electing legislators by county instead of by population, in addition to being unconstitutional, gets to the ugly heart of the matter: these people think rural citizens should count for more than urban citizens.

Conflicts between urban and rural areas of the state are nothing new. The new development here is irresponsibility from rural elected officials in addressing that conflict. Whether they are caught up in a reactionary craze, or exploiting it out of political ambition, the elected officials pushing these nonsensical, unworkable secession proposals are doing both their constituents and their stated goals a profound disservice.

As entertaining as it all may be, this really needs to be noted for the record.

View the original article here

Secession Silliness Continues

Sad Sean Conway and his sad plaid jacket

As The Denver Post reports, Weld County plans to put the question of secession from Colorado on its county ballot, mostly because Sean Conway is sad:

A secession question is very likely to appear on the Weld County ballot in November, commissioner Sean Conway said Monday.

"It sends a very clear message to Denver that people are unhappy," Conway said.

Representatives from Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Weld counties participated in a conference call Monday afternoon, but most said they would not OK a ballot question until county attorneys delivered final wording. Participants agreed, however, that such a wording should be uniform.

Weld County has been spearheading the 51st state initiative, which supports secession from Colorado.

When Conway and friends first floated the idea of seceding from Colorado, it was recognized as the goofy PR stunt that it was. Yes, some people in rural Colorado were not happy with some of the legislation approved last spring, but that's how Democracy works.

The idea has since sputtered, predictably so, as "town hall" meetings were held throughout Eastern Colorado. While Conway seems hell-bent on keeping the nonsense alive, others are seceding from the secession debate:

Lincoln County administrator Roxy Devers said the commissioners in her county are not planning to put the measure on the 2013 ballot.

"They have not heard a lot of their constituents stating this would be a good idea," Devers said. [Pols emphasis]

From what we've been hearing, comments from the likes of Devers are increasingly common. Conway's silly stunt drew some attention to the issues at first, but it's becoming an embarrassment for many rural Coloradans.

We have a hard time seeing where Conway hopes to go with this effort, since it is virtually impossible for his merry band to actually form a 51st state. It's not like Conway can use this as a springboard to run for state office, either; as we've pointed out again and again, around 90% of the voting population in Colorado lives along the Front Range, between Fort Collins and Pueblo. Some rural Coloradans may not be pleased with the state legislature, but it would be completely absurd for an elected body to focus on the wishes of 10% of the state at the expense of everyone else.

It bears repeating that Weld County is the largest of the rural counties, and they have barely one-third the number of voters as Denver. There's no "anti-rural Colorado" conspiracy. People just don't live there anymore.

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“North Colorado” Secession Plan Sputters, Gets Even Wackier

One of several proposed North Colorado state flags (via Progress Now).

The Denver Post's Adrian Garcia updates on the plot by a number of rural northeastern Colorado counties to secede from the state of Colorado, and form their own new state of "North Colorado." Apparently, and it's not like anybody could have predicted this, but the original plan to secede is not really working out so much:

Fervor for a plan to carve northeastern Colorado into a 51st state has been cooled by legal barriers and a lack of public support, [Pols emphasis] but commissioners from rural counties say they're not done fighting for better representation of their citizens…

[T]he counties now are contemplating the Phillips County Proposal, which would change the way state House districts are represented at the Capitol.

The plan, offered by Phillips County Administrator Randy Schafer, would have representatives elected by county, rather than by population.

That's right, folks, kind of like the U.S. Senate, rural northeast Colorado county commissioners, since outright secession isn't working out like they planned, would now like to turn the Colorado General Assembly into a body elected by county boundaries–not the precisely equal population distribution that guides the legislative reapportionment process every ten years in Colorado, most recently in 2011.

Of course, equal representation of states in the U.S. Senate is one thing, and that is itself not without controversy despite being the express constitutional intent of the Founding Fathers. The idea that Phillips County, Colorado (population 4,500) should be "equally represented" in the Colorado General Assembly with, say, Jefferson County (population 540,000), however, is ridiculous–and unconstitutional per the 1964 Supreme Court decision of Reynolds vs. Sims. If rural Colorado counties feel underrepresented today, imagine how Jefferson County residents would feel when told that a Phillips County vote should be worth ten Jefferson County votes in a legislative election.

It seems to us, folks, that proposing to devalue urban and suburban voters in order to be "fair" to rural voters is not much different from the offense rural voters claim against themselves. There's no going back: Colorado's population is changing, and it is urbanizing, and that does inevitably mean the power is shifting away from rural areas to population centers. In a society where everyone is equal, population is power and it always will be. Even most rural voters understand that, which explains the lack of public support for secession reported above. And they know that when you get down to it, Coloradans in Jefferson County aren't really that different from those in Phillips County.

That said, penny-ante rural politicians have an equal right to waste their time.

Full story: “North Colorado” Secession Plan Sputters, Gets Even Wackier

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