A California venture capitalist has just received permission to start gathering signatures to petition his state to split into six new states.

Can Texas be next?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/02/petition-to-split-california-into-six-states-gets-green-light/

California is too big to govern, say supporters of the movement to split the state up. So they intend to gather about 800,000 signatures to put the issue on the state ballot. My guess right at this moment is that it wouldn’t pass, but that’s just me.

All this hoo-hah in California reminds me of the constant grumbling here in Texas to split the Lone Star State into five states. Depending on who you ask, the state has the political authority to do so under the terms of its joining the Union in 1845. I haven’t studied the issue carefully enough to comment intelligently on what the state can or cannot do.

Back in 1991, a freshman state representative from Dumas, David Swinford, proposed breaking the Panhandle off from the rest of the state. I learned about it from my perch way down yonder in Beaumont. My initial thought was, “That is just plain nuts.”

Then I moved here in 1995 and when I got the chance I asked Swinford about his idea. He was only half-joking, he told me. He was concerned that Austin didn’t care enough about the Panhandle’s affairs. Besides — and this is hilarious — Swinford said he was unhappy that the official state map didn’t include the Panhandle on the same page as the rest of the state; you have to turn the map over to look for locations within the Panhandle.

The California saga will play out in due course. I rather doubt the state really is too big to govern effectively. And do you think the U.S. Senate will be able to grow by 10 new members if the state adds five more political subdivisions?

Consider, too, that California is heavily Democratic. Do you really think congressional Republicans are going to allow the Senate to add more Democrats to the Senate?

And we haven’t even talked yet about the House of Representatives.

Stay tuned to see how this most interesting political drama ends.