Re:
“and ( California's ) Secretary of State Debra Bowen has given him the green light to start collecting petition signatures.”
Of course she did. If he’d asked if we could annex Jupiter she would’ve given him the green light to start collecting petition signatures too. Why? A ballot measure is just that, it's doesn't dictate the forming of a new state.
That's up to the California Legislature and the United States Congress.
Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution:
Excerpt
" New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress."
I think the last time a state was successfully split to create another one was in 1863, West Virginia from Virginia.
Be careful what you wish for.
Do you really want
10 more U.S. Senators from the new California’s to deal with.
Can you imagine that voting block?
Feinstein and Boxer x 6.…is that really what you want?
Puerto Rico has a better chance of becoming the 51st. state In the union than Jefferson does.