SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Residents of California's largely rural, agrarian and politically conservative far northern counties long ago got used to feeling ignored in the state Capitol and out of sync with major urban areas. 
 
 Tom Knorr, chairman of the Measure A campaign in Tehama County, holds a State of Jefferson flag as he poses for photographs at his ranch house in Corning, Calif., Tuesday, May 27, 2014. The idea of forming... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Sept. 6, 2013 photo, a car is driven down Miner Street past the historic Franco American Hotel in Yreka, Calif. The former gold mining town served as the temporary capital of a proposed State... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2008 file photo, a skull with a State of Jefferson sticker is hangs in the Palace Barber Shop in Yreka, Calif. Voters in Del Norte and Tehama counties will decide June 3 on an... (Associated Press) 
 
 The idea of forming their own state has been a topic among local secession dreamers for more than a century. Residents in two counties will have a chance to voice that sentiment next week. 
 
 Voters in Del Norte and Tehama, with a combined population of about 91,000, will decide June 3 on an advisory measure that asks each county's board of supervisors to join a wider effort to form a 51st state named Jefferson. 
 
 Elected officials in Glenn, Modoc, Siskiyou and Yuba counties already voted to join the movement. Supervisors in Butte County will vote June 10, while local bodies in other northern counties are awaiting the June 3 ballot results before deciding what to do. 
 
 A similar but unrelated question on the primary ballot in Siskiyou County asks voters to rename that county the Republic of Jefferson. 
 
 "We have 11 counties up here that share one state senator," compared to 20 for the greater Los Angeles area and 10 for the San Francisco Bay Area, said Aaron Funk of Crescent City, a coastal town in Del Norte County near the Oregon border. "Essentially, we have no representation whatsoever." 
 
 The current county secession efforts are merely advisory, encouraging local officials to further study the idea. The steps involved in trying to become the country's 51st state are steep, first requiring approval from the state Legislature, then from Congress. 
 
 The counties that could opt in — as many as 16, according to supporters — make up more than a quarter of the state's land mass but only a small portion of its population. 
 
 The seven counties that have voted or will this month have a combined geographic area twice the size of New Hampshire, with about 467,000 residents. 
 
 The terrain spans some of California's most majestic coastal scenery to agriculture-dominated valleys, Mount Shasta and Redwood National Park. Some of its residents are also are among the state's poorest, and the population is far different from California as a whole. 
 
 While the state has no racial majority and Hispanics make up the largest ethnic group, residents in the far northern counties are overwhelmingly white. 
 
 Because the exact makeup of the proposed state of Jefferson is still unknown, it is hard to assess the potential economic impact. The state Department of Finance does not have a county-by-county comparison of what each contributes in state revenue versus what it receives. 
 
 But the loss of millions of dollars for everything from infrastructure to schools is among the biggest worries of residents who oppose the secession movement. The Del Norte County Board of Education, which receives 90 percent of its funding, or $32 million, from the state, voted to oppose the local initiative, known as Measure A. 
 
 If it passes, Kevin Hendrick worries that local officials will spend years studying how to create a new state rather than tackling concrete problems such as fixing a crumbling highway that is in danger of falling into the ocean. 
 
 "It's a lot of broad promises about things being better and representation being better," said Hendrick, who is leading the opposition in Del Norte. "But the more they talk, the less clear it becomes about how that's actually going to happen." 
 
 It's also unclear how the new state would pay for federally mandated education, social welfare, health care and other programs or a host of other services residents rely on. Proponents say they would scrap thousands of regulations and state agencies, freeing Jefferson's leaders to spend how they want and attract more businesses. 
 
 "We have the water, forests, timber, we have the minerals. We have unspoiled agricultural land," said Funk, the secession proponent. "We would be the wealthy state if we were allowed to go back and use our natural resources ourselves." 
 
 Much of the land in what would become the state of Jefferson is federal, and that wouldn't change if the region became its own state. 
 
 A separate effort by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, borne out of the same belief that the state of 38 million has become ungovernable, would create "six Californias," including a state of Jefferson comprised of 13 counties. The state legislative analyst's office found Jefferson would rank near the bottom of the six economically. 
 
 Many state-of-Jefferson meetings are held in conjunction with tea party groups, who share similar concerns over what Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia Armstrong calls "so many nanny laws" coming from Sacramento. 
 
 "We are very libertarian in view, and we believe that people would have freedom to make their own choices as long as they don't impose on other people's rights," she said. ||||| The California state flag flies above City Hall in Santa Monica, California, in this February 6, 2009 file photo. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCOCreating the state of California took a revolt that led to the short-lived Bear Republic, a war with Mexico, and various international treaties. Now, some northern natives hope to take it apart, starting with a couple of ballot initiatives. 
 
 Tuesday, voters in Del Norte and Tehama counties will consider a measure calling for separation from California and the formation of a new state. Supporters are hoping to generate momentum for pulling together portions of northern California and southern Oregon into an entity to be called Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson once imagined that part of western North America might develop into a freestanding republic. 
 
 Local vexations with state government were cited by Aaron Funk, an aptly named organizer of the movement: “lack of representation, lack of infrastructure, inability to use a lot of our resources.” 
 
 Heavy winter rains often wash out U.S. 101, a major artery in the region. That really rankles him. So do restrictions on timber harvesting. Most of all, Funk loathes the region's paltry representation in California's senate, with its population-based allocation. Just 28,000 people call Del Norte County home, compared to 38 million for the state overall. 
 
 Business owners are doubly confounded, he said, and face “mounds of paperwork, red tape.” Funk owns and lives in a recreational vehicle park in the coastal town of Klamath. 
 
 Opponents of the measure say it sounds an economic death knell for the area, given its poverty and high unemployment. 
 
 “We will continue to face the same challenges,” wrote Del Norte County officials in their formal argument against the measure. “Except we will no longer be subsidized by the State.” 
 
 Efforts to chop up California boast a long history. Disgruntled residents first proposed a state of Jefferson, also comprising counties in nearby southern Oregon, in the 1940s. 
 
 In 1993, after voters in 27 counties approved, the state Assembly agreed to a nonbinding statewide vote on whether to divide California into three. But the measure never made it into the state Senate, and the referendum was never held. 
 
 More recently, venture capitalist Tim Draper suggested splitting California into six separate states, while fellow venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan proposed that Silicon Valley secede from the country. 
 
 "Most of their issues revolve around a government that is not in touch with their needs," said Draper in an email about the aspiring citizens of Jefferson. "If they are freed to self- govern, they might have a state that becomes more successful economically." 
 
 Scholars of constitutional law point out that such separations require approval of the state legislature and the U.S. Congress. 
 
 “There is no incentive,” said Ethan Rarick, director of the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at the University of California, Berkeley. “If you’re one of 100 senators," he reasoned, "you don’t want to become one of 102.” 
 
 Supporters of the latest separation initiative say it has a better chance of passing in Tehama County than Del Norte County, where opposition has been well organized. 
 
 (Reporting by Sarah McBride and Prudence Crowther; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
– Could the 51st state be wedged between California and Oregon? Voters in two northern California counties will tomorrow weigh in on the question, Reuters reports. Activists in Del Norte and Tehama Counties want to break away from the Golden State, linking parts of northern California and southern Oregon together as the state of Jefferson. Other nearby counties have already backed the separation effort, the AP notes, though actually seceding would require state and federal approval. And that approval seems unlikely, an expert tells Reuters. "There is no incentive" for federal officials to pass the measure, he says. “If you’re one of 100 senators, you don’t want to become one of 102." Pro-separation activists in the sparsely populated area are tired of having little representation in state government. "We have 11 counties up here that share one state senator," says movement leader Aaron Funk. Some in the conservative region feel disconnected from the state's urban areas. Up to 16 California counties could choose to join the movement, backers say, covering a quarter of the state's land but far less of its population, the AP notes. The name Jefferson is linked to Thomas Jefferson's concept of a possible republic in the west. Click for another proposed split.