Venture Capitalists Want to Divide California Into 6 States

by Alex Gronke

The Golden State is a hidebound monopoly that delivers poor services at high prices to its citizen-consumers. It’s time to carve California into smaller states, just as Ma Bell divided into the Baby Bells in the 1980s. That’s the assessment of Tim Draper, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capitalists, who is hoping to put a proposition on an upcoming ballot that would split California into six new states.

Draper notes that the 38 million people currently represented by only two senators in Washington would have 12 with his idea, which he is calling Six Californias, according to Tech Crunch. The founder of Draper University of Heroes wants to have language for a ballot proposition submitted to state officials before the end of the year.

Southern California real estate mogul and venture capitalist John Cox wants to keep the state intact, but he aims to smash the legislature into 11,000 little pieces. On Thursday, Cox got approval from the secretary of state to collect signatures for an initiative to divide the 120 Senate and Assembly districts into neighborhood districts representing 5,000 and 10,000 people, respectively. 

Cox thinks lawmakers from micro-districts would spend more time listening to constituents and less time hobnobbing with campaign cash donors, according to the Los Angeles Times. Cox has until May 19 to gather 807,615 signatures.