Many Rural Colorado Counties Are Seeking To Form New State

Now that the smoke has somewhat cleared from the last legislative session, many county commissioners (not including Larimer county) are devising a plan to start a new state and will be asking for our votes this November.

Rural Colorado county commissioners have basically said that the new laws and bills recently passed "runs counter to their way of life."

In question specifically are laws that were passed this year in a Democrat-controlled Legislature that enacted 'stricter gun control' and impacting agriculture paired with attempts to expand regulation of oil and gas production.'

There are already up to 10 rural county commissioners on board with the plan and Weld County commish, Sean Conway-R, will be asking voters this November whether to form a new state.  Conway says the idea is non-partisan and followed that up by pointing out,

Democrats who hold county office in rural parts of the state where the economy is dependent on agriculture and oil and gas share this perspective.

Wow.  Didn't see this coming.  November should be interesting because any kind of an attempt to 'split from the state' would require voters in each county that seeks to be a part of the split speak up and vote to pass it.  If it were to pass in November, the plan would still require the approval of the Legislature and the governor to petition Congress to create a new state.

It would likely be a requirement that the counties are contiguous, but any county — including some in neighboring states such as Nebraska and Kansas — is welcome to pursue the option, which he concedes is extreme. Larimer County commissioners were unfamiliar with the plan - Commissioner Lew Gaiter