I always thought Jefferson was the wrong name.
Baja Oregon has a nice ring to it 
The initiative process is pretty fucked up. In my state, we have a guy who keeps getting them on the ballot and when they pass, the court invalidates them because an initiative is supposed to do one thing but he tries to put in the draw on top of a second thing.
I could see some sort of two-stage thing that would involve a panel of citizens from the jury pool to review initiatives after the first vote and make the measure workable for the second vote, which would be Yes / Fair, but needs work / No, because we already have a bicameral legislature, so why should initiatives be just one vote?
Luckily, our state constitution does not allow initiatives to amend the state constitution. That would be messed up.
In case we lose one. You never know when one is going to wander off and join some other country.
We have Mississippi so Alabama and Arkansas have someone to look down on.
As Bill Maher recently said (paraphrasing): There are more people in LA who are named Dakota than there are living in both of the Dakota states! 
Barstow. Barstow is the one I wonder about.
“We were somewhere near Barstow…”
As a Southern Californian I would like to say that anyone living north of Disneyland is a Northern Californian. The split should definitely be there, at the Matterhorn.
Santa Barbara or thereabouts should be the dividing line.
Regardless, this comes up at least once per decade, and it’s always either voted down or it never makes it to the ballot in the first place. Not happenin’.
I saved a man in Barstow just to watch him suffer.
Santa Barbara is just Orange County North Annex. The division between Northern and Southern California staets at Ragged Point and runs WNW through Fresno, which both NoCal and SoCal hate with equal feavor.
Stranger
Nobody mentions Lodi. I mean, there are sadder shitholes in California – I guess. I have not been to one, though.
That is one of the stupidest fucking things I’ve ever read. Have you ever actually been to Santa Barbara?
“Stuck in Lodi again…”
Yes, I have. It is full of people who have retired and moved there from Orange County, bringing their political conservatism and contempt for workers and immigrants with them and pushing out the historical beach community denziens to Goleta or Ventura.
Have you been there?
Stranger
I’ve lived there for 28 years.
As a guy who moved from Seattle to Santa Barbara a few years ago and used to travel to Orange County for work, let me counter with this:nuh-uh.
Santa Barbara was the only county outside of the Bay Area to have a majority vote against Prop 8.
In the short story I’m writing, Stranger’s impressions come from visits to his grandparents. They were either part of or pushing out the historic beach denizens – not sure which way to go on that.
I gotta’ go with you and hajario, though perhaps less pungently than him. Like Orange County, Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez is rich as fuck, but unlike the OC, they’re still lefties. NIMBYism doesn’t necessarily mean right-wing leanings. After all, an environmentalist is someone who already has a redwood deck…
Then again, it’s been 15-20 years since I’ve lived in CA. Doubt the conservative leanings have increased though in that time.
No CA split plan is going to work with a giant urban center going with each piece. Maybe, (LOL) Jefferson without Sacramento would fly? Maybe. But three states from one; each with a liberal majority, which would mean four new Dem (or Green) senators? Yeah, not happening.
Be satisfied with President Harris in 2020.
As to probably the most equitable split? I visualize a split into two. The northern boundary is the Mendocino/Sonoma line, going east to Napa, Yolo, Sacramento, coming west to Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, and basically following the Diablo/Inner Coast Range south. Give the Valley to the rednecks, and the Coast to the left. It stops at LA County. Orange County, Riverside, and San Bernardino go to the 'necks. Were it not for the naval bases and breweries, I’d say cede SD and Imperial back to Mexico.
But something like that. A wealthy coastal enclave, and then the rest of California with the miserable (comparatively) weather.