Dahle would run for state of Jefferson governorship

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013 edition of the Lassen County Times.

According to the Pledge of Allegiance, we are, “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

And some readers might remember we fought the bloodiest war in American history — the Civil War between the North and the South — to keep the nation whole when 11 southern states seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America in 1860.

And last Tuesday, in a 4-1 vote, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors issued a declaration of secession to the state of California expressing the board’s desire to form to fabled state of Jefferson.

And as the echo of that vote reverberated across the Northern California county, California District 1 Assemblyman Brian Dahle, a former Lassen County Supervisor, declared his interest in becoming the governor of the new state should it come into existence.

Dahle’s office issued a one-sentence statement, in which Dahle, the assemblyman for Siskiyou County, said, “If the people of Siskiyou County are successful in creating their own state, I will be the first to seek the office of governor.”

According to the declaration, reminiscent of the Declaration of Independence, “ … there are times in our history when it is apparent that the political separation of one people from another becomes necessary, both for the survival of the one, as well as the continued well being of the other … ”

The proposed state of Jefferson would not include Lassen County, although county residents also have kicked the idea around in the past.

The United States Congress and the California legislature would need to approve the secession from the state of California in order for the state of Jefferson to become a reality.

According to the Mount Shasta Herald, “The declaration cites a lack of representation for rural and frontier counties, aggressive regulation and reinterpretation of long-established laws, that California is unmanageable in its present state and 45 historical efforts to divide the state by 1998 among its reasons for the split.”

According to the Record Searchlight, more than 100 supporters attended the supervisors’ meeting Tuesday.

“Many proposed laws are unconstitutional and deny us our God-given rights,” Gabe Garrison, of Happy Camp, said at the meeting. “We need our own state so we can make laws that fit our way of life.”