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Secession Schemes Within the States

Residents of red counties in blue states wish they had a new political home. Also, in Florida, the Legislature is starting to stand up to Ron DeSantis.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek sits with colleagues at Kafiex Roasters on the Vancouver, Wash., waterfront on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024.
Eastern Oregon residents are unhappy enough with Democratic leaders such as Gov. Tina Kotek that some want to split the state.
Dave Killen/TNS
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Secession Schemes Within the States: Last November, voters in seven Illinois counties approved ballot measures calling for the creation of a new state. More than anything, they wanted to get away from Cook County and what they see as the pernicious, too-liberal influence of Chicago.

Since then, their neighbors in Indiana have suggested that these counties don’t need to go to all the trouble of creating a new state. Instead, they could just become Hoosiers. “We’ve always said we’re a welcoming state,” said Todd Huston, the GOP speaker of the Indiana House. “To all of our neighbors in the West, we hear your frustrations and invite you to join us in low-cost, low-tax Indiana.”

Huston’s bill to annex parts of Illinois may go nowhere but it’s part of a trend. Over the last dozen years or so, voters in red counties within blue states such as California, Colorado and Maryland have either approved secession measures or at least started serious movements. They feel orphaned by policies that reflect Democratic cities but not their own rural values.

Voters in 13 Oregon counties have approved ballot measures in favor of changing their mailing addresses to Idaho. “It’s not just a few people that think this is a good idea,” says Matt McCaw, executive director of Greater Idaho. “A majority of Eastern Oregonians think it’s a good idea and want it to happen.”

Across the country, big cities and college towns vote Democratic and rural areas solidly Republican. President Donald Trump made inroads in many major cities last fall, but in blue states such as Oregon the major metropolitan areas can outvote all the rest.

It’s one of those ideas, like abolishing the Electoral College or creating a viable third party, that may be impossible to pull off but that many people can’t let go of. For two states to change their borders, both have to agree and then Congress would need to sign off. McCaw is optimistic that Idaho legislators will support measures to get the merger process going. Maybe so, but there appears to be no appetite for this idea in the Oregon Legislature — at least, not among the leaders who matter. In Illinois, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has dismissed Indiana’s desire to take over some of his turf as a “stunt.”

Still, McCaw says it’s worth making the effort. If more people could be part of jurisdictions that reflect their values, that would make life better for everybody, he says: “The outcome is lowered political tension, a better match of people to the government that they want and a win-win for everyone involved.”

House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, seen during registration and breakfast at Florida's Future Conference at the University of Miami on Sept. 28, 2023.
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez is willing to stand up to Gov. DeSantis.
Jose A. Iglesias/TNS
DeSantis No Longer King of Florida: Every governor has both formal powers, such as making appointments and issuing vetoes, and informal powers. The latter are the intangibles that can make a real difference in what a governor can get done. Legislators and other actors are more likely to bend to a governor with big re-election numbers or high approval ratings.

This is being demonstrated now in Florida. There have been no real changes to Republican Ron DeSantis’ power as governor, but the way he’s being treated in Tallahassee has changed a lot since his first term, when he got essentially everything he wanted out of the Legislature.

It was just a year ago that DeSantis returned to Florida after his unsuccessful bid for president. As governor, DeSantis had created a national brand for himself by pushing conservative policies on a host of hot-button issues, but while he was out on the campaign trail legislators largely ran the shop without him. With his return to Tallahassee, there were real questions about whether he’d still dominate the state as he had before his national bid flamed out.

This year, it seems that legislators are determined to establish their independence. On Monday, they overrode DeSantis’ line-item veto of $57 million in legislative support services. That may sound like they were feathering their own nests, but it was the first time the Legislature has overridden DeSantis — or any Florida governor, for that matter, since 2010. All but one lawmaker voted for the override. “This veto was at best a misunderstanding of the importance of the appropriation,” said House Speaker Daniel Perez, “or, at worst, an attempt to threaten the independence of our separate branch of government.”

A bigger fight was soon to come. DeSantis appealed directly to President Trump to lobby legislators to strengthen an immigration bill meant to align the state with the administration’s enforcement efforts. Lawmakers were happy to accommodate Trump’s requests — they’d named the bill after him — but they preserved a provision designed to ding DeSantis. The bill would shift most responsibility for immigration enforcement from the governor to Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.

After the bill passed Tuesday night, DeSantis vowed to veto it. It’s not certain that legislative leaders will have the votes to override the governor on this one. But it’s clear that they’re no longer afraid of picking a fight with him. “Threatening others to get your way isn’t leadership, it’s immaturity,” Perez said on Tuesday.

Mayor Eric Adams speaking during a press conference announcing the reopening and conversion of the George Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island, Bronx, New York, Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
The Trump administration may solve Eric Adams' legal troubles.
(Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News)
Odds and Ends: Democrats enjoyed some good news in special elections on Tuesday. Doron Clark won a heavily Democratic district in Minneapolis, giving Democrats control of the state Senate. The chamber had been tied following the death last month of Kari Dziedzic.

Democrat Mike Zimmer flipped a state Senate seat in eastern Iowa. The seat had been vacated by Republican Chris Cournoyer, who is now serving as lieutenant governor. She’d taken 61 percent of the vote in 2022 and Trump carried the district by 21 points last fall, so Democrats were quick to hail the result as the first signs of resuscitation under this administration …

In the Texas House, committee chairmanships have been shared between the parties since 1969. That’s long riled Republicans, who have dominated the chamber for 30 years yet have seen priority bills killed by Democratic chairs. The House voted last week to reserve chairs for the majority, but minority members will serve as vice chairs …

It’s no secret that New York Mayor Eric Adams has been making nice with Trump — visiting with him in Florida and attending the president’s inauguration. This charm offensive may pay real, personal dividends. Last month, Trump said he’d consider pardoning Adams, saying the mayor had been treated “pretty unfairly” by prosecutors, who have indicted Adams as part of a bribery and corruption case.

It may never come to that. Various news outlets are reporting that Justice Department officials have been talking with Adams’ attorneys (including Alex Spiro, who is also a lawyer for Trump confidant Elon Musk) about dropping charges ahead of Adams’ trial, which is scheduled for April.
Alan Greenblatt is the editor of Governing. He can be found on Twitter at @AlanGreenblatt.
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