El Dorado County Group Mulls Secession From California

Visitors hike through DL Bliss State Park at Lake Tahoe near South Lake Tahoe, California, on July 22, 2014. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Frustrated by what they call a lack of representation, some residents of El Dorado County, east of Sacramento, are exploring a plan to split from the Golden State and form their own state.

If enough residents support the idea, the Republic for El Dorado State group will take the matter directly to Congress, bypassing the state Legislature that has squashed numerous past attempts.

“We’re trying to find a way for it to happen without having to go to California on our knees, begging for them to release us. Because we know they will not,” one of the organizers, Sharon Durst, told The Epoch Times.

The county encompasses about 1,800 square miles along the Sierra Nevada and includes South Lake Tahoe, Placerville, Pollock Pines, Fallen Leaf, Meeks Bay, and many other small towns and villages.

Today, the rural county of less than 200,000 people attracts tourists to its wine country and recreational offerings.

Google Maps/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

According to the website for the group, “The residents of El Dorado County have no local state or congressional representation. None of the state or federal representatives that serve El Dorado County, live in El Dorado County.”

They also say the “invasion” at the state’s border, sanctuary policies, and rampant crime violate the county’s rights.

The group has only officially met once in May but is planning to hold another town hall on July 10.

If allowed to secede, El Dorado state could create its own constitution and a style of living that the locals want, according to Durst.

Their interpretation of California’s Constitution guarantees them a republican form of government, meaning their voice should be represented—but this isn’t happening, Durst said. For example, their state senator in District 4, which stretches across 13 counties, state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil (D-Jackson), represents about 1 million residents.

The group also argues they are guaranteed to have Congress help them with foreign invasions and domestic violence, both of which are rampant in the state with the influx of undocumented immigrants and skyrocketing crime, Durst said.

“Right now, people are leaving California, but we don’t want to leave our homes, we don’t want to leave what we’ve built. We just want to leave California,” she said.

People carry skis as they walk toward a resort in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., on March 21, 2023. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Making Economic Sense

Former county supervisor Ray Nutting, who was arrested in 2013 and later acquitted of charges related to receiving state grants, is helping to organize the economics side of the plan.

“We have an economic base that is renewable in terms of agriculture, tourism, and water supply,” he told The Epoch Times. “We are very blessed in terms of who we are in El Dorado County, and our tax base absolutely will be enough to deliver critical services.”

He sees taxes going down for residents if they split from California. The state’s income, sales, and gas taxes are some of the highest in the nation. Those are on top of assorted fees for electricity usage, businesses, climate action, and many other fees and charges.

A recent increase in the state’s housing regulations and mandates requiring low-income housing and high-density developments are also expensive, Nutting said.

Nutting’s children are fifth-generation ranchers, and he has taught them to care for the land, he said.

“We have a chance to take care of the land better than the state of California,” Nutting said.

The proposed secession would hinge on Article 4, Section 3, Clause 1, which provides the process of forming new states. This article declares no state can be formed within the jurisdiction of any other state without the consent of the legislatures of the states and Congress.

This is sometimes called the admissions clause, but Durst calls it the “hostage clause,” because it holds the people who are unhappy with their current situation hostage, she said.

Traffic flows along Highway 50 in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., on Sept. 5, 2021. Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group via AP

The second clause—Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2—states that Congress shall have the power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States.

The group points to the fact that 46 percent of the land in El Dorado County is federal forest land, and the county was formed before the state. Nutting said he believes the county could use this clause to go straight to Congress, although he said they will have to obtain expert legal advice at some point.

Law Professor Disagrees

Margaret Russell, a law professor at Santa Clara University and constitutional law expert, says this language doesn’t allow counties to go directly to Congress.

“I think this is a non-starter of an argument for them,” Russell told The Epoch Times.

There’s no such thing as a county in the constitutional structure, she added. “They derive their power from the state.”

The U.S. Constitution doesn’t say anything about the role of counties and makes it clear the state is the relevant stakeholder, she said.

As for representation, the state mirrors the structure of Congress. This allows representation based on population and representation in the Senate based on equalizing power across the government, according to Russell.

Pioneering Spirit

The group is circulating a survey to find out how many of their neighbors support the idea. So far, they have received positive feedback and few negative comments, according to Durst. They expect to take about a year to organize what they need to petition Congress, she said.

“So many of these ’separate from California‘ movements linger on and on, and we don’t want to do that,” Durst said. “We want to know fairly quickly, do the people of [El Dorado County] see an advantage to leaving California as a new state.”

Bill Roberts holds an American flag in front of his house in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., on Aug. 31, 2021. Terry Chea/AP Photo

The group’s trailblazing spirit is reminiscent of the efforts made by forefathers of the region, who came out west seeking riches during the Gold Rush of the late 1840s and early 1850s, she said.

“We still have that pioneer spirit in El Dorado County,” Durst said.

Her great-great-grandmother arrived in the county in a covered wagon, she said. Durst was born just west of the area in Sutter County and moved back after she retired from her job in Sacramento.

The secession isn’t about politics—Durst isn’t a Republican or a Democrat. The state has always been too big, she said.

“The Declaration [of Independence] gave us freedom and liberty from King George, and we want freedom and liberty from the state of California,” Durst said.

Talk of splitting up the Golden State has been floated many times before this, reaching back to when the territory first became a state in 1850. At least 220 attempts to break up the nation’s third-largest state have failed, according to the California State Library.

Residents of a cluster of rural northern California and southern Oregon counties have repeatedly attempted to form a “State of Jefferson” due to concerns over logging, mining, and agricultural industries. In 2013, two northern California counties—Siskiyou and Modoc—voted in favor of beginning plans to secede and create the State of Jefferson.

In the 1990s, California Assemblyman Stan Statham, a Republican from Redding, advocated for dividing California into three states.