They hope to form a new state. Shasta’s top elections official is paying attention.
New California State is a political movement whose leaders say they have support from the federal administration to propose the creation of a new state. Federal officials haven’t commented.
Last Saturday, less than a thousand people cast votes on an issue they hope will soon determine the fate of 40 million Californians.
New California State (NCS), a movement attempting to separate from California to form its own state, held the July 12 election in order to approve a provisional constitution. According to NCS, participants representing more than 50 of California’s 58 counties voted, with some making long drives to reach one of the 26 NCS precincts.
In Shasta County, ballots were cast in an unassuming conference room at the Redding Red Lion Hotel. One especially noteworthy voter was Shasta County Clerk and Registrar of Voters (ROV) Clint Curtis, the public official tasked with running the county’s official California election process. Many of the same local activists who have consistently cast doubt on the integrity of the Shasta Election Office over the last several years helped administer the event.
While less than 0.003% of California’s population voted in the NCS election, those who did overwhelmingly passed the movement’s draft constitution. NCS hopes to present the results to Congress in an attempt to leave behind the “tyranny and corruption” of California’s government by establishing a 51st state.
While vote totals don’t show insubstantial support for the movement, efforts to form the new state are playing out against a backdrop of intense months-long conflict between the Trump administration and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Much of that conflict centers around immigration policy, including the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles over the sharp objections of Newsom, who is widely believed to have the dual goal of defending California sovereignty and positioning himself for a future presidential run.
Speaking to reporters at Saturday’s NCS event in Shasta, voters expressed dissatisfaction about the relatively small representation that rural voters have in the California State Senate and Assembly, the perceived “invasion” of immigrants, legal recognitions afforded to transgender Californians, vaccine mandates, unregulated Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the state’s tenuous financial solvency, among other issues.
In Shasta, the NCS voting process was filmed and shared with the public via livestream. While reporters were not allowed access to the voting room, the NCS livestream of the space confirmed the involvement of Curtis, Shasta’s recently-appointed ROV, who can be seen marking a ballot and turning it in.
He declined Shasta Scout’s request to speak about his involvement in the event. Although Curtis has spoken to reporters in the past, staff said Monday that he doesn’t do media interviews. It’s a change from the stance Curtis took during while seeking the ROV position and at a campaign event shortly after his appointment, when he said that he and other staff wouldn’t “hide behind an office.”
He’s faced public scrutiny since before his appointment. Criticism has centered around his lack of election experience, inaccuracies and inconsistencies in his job application, a decision to fire his top election staffer and his connection with Shasta Election Commissioner Patty Plumb, who is also the chair of the Shasta branch of NCS.
Given Curtis’ refusal to speak with reporters this week, it is unclear how he voted on the constitution. Nevertheless, his participation signals interest in the partisan NCS movement. And Curtis is not the only person on the county’s payroll who’s participating. Chriss Street, a county contractor who’s been championed by county board Chair Kevin Crye, is the chief financial officer of NCS.
Why is NCS approving a constitution?
In efforts to create a 51st state, NCS drafted a constitution that was approved by the movement’s leaders on July 1. The group held the election last week to seek the approval of voters around the state who are aware of the NCS movement. Officials hope to produce a document that meets the demands of Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, which requires that every state protect its citizens from invasions and domestic violence while providing a “republican form of government.”
A speculative map of the boundaries of the future state includes almost all of California, with the exception of the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo and partitioned portions of Los Angeles, Sacramento, Santa Clara, Alameda and Marin.
NCS President Paul Preston told Shasta Scout that NCS plans to present the constitution to Congress in September — either via House Speaker Mike Johnson or President Donald Trump — but it would be up to a member of Congress to actually introduce a bill to ratify statehood, he said. If a member of Congress decides to introduce a bill seeking to make NCS a state, the legislative branch would scrutinize the new constitution to make sure that it meets federal standards before voting on the issue. Multiple states have followed a similar process in the past.
Preston claims that NCS has been working with Mike Johnson’s office, saying that members of the Trump administration have expressed significant support for transmitting the new constitution to Congress, although he declined to specify which members of the administration the group has interacted with so far. Spokespeople for Trump and Johnson did not respond to Shasta Scout when asked whether they have been in communication with NCS, but Preston said he’s confident that Congress will review and approve the statehood bill.
“They’ll look at the constitution on its merits,” Preston said. “There may be some negotiations to tweak something, you know, and it would be on them to come to an agreement.”
Notably, the current NCS constitution includes sections that appear to contradict past Supreme Court decisions regarding certain civil and constitutional rights. For instance, the NCS constitution defines marriage as a “covenant between one man and one woman,” something which conflicts with the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which guarantees the right to marriage to same sex couples in every state.
Asked specifically about the question of marriage equality, Preston said NCS would push Congress to allow the proposed state to define marriage only in heterosexual terms, and “see if they accept it or not.”
The West Virginia Model
The process through which states have been admitted to the union over the past 249 years has varied, depending on factors such as whether the proposed state was previously a territory or was split off from a pre-existing state.
NCS officials have said their attempted path to statehood is modeled on the birth of West Virginia, which became a state in 1863 after approval from both the state of Virginia and the federal government. In contrast to West Virginia, NCS will not be seeking the approval of California’s government, a step the movement is bypassing because officials view the state legislature to be tyrannical.
NCS leaders say they see similarities in their motivations to seek statehood and those of early West Virginians. In the 1860s, West Virginia’s struggle to statehood came out of a desire to remain part of the Union instead of seceding along with the rest of Virginia during the Civil War.
Officials with NCS claim that California is heading down a similarly treasonous path of secession as Virginia once did, prompting NCS supporters to create their own state in order to remain loyal to the nation rather than submit to what they perceive as California’s insurrectionist leaders. Preston cited COVID-19 and vaccination policies, the sanctuary state designation and bail reform as some examples of how NCS believes an insurrectionist California has tyrannically undermined the rights and safety of the people.
Unlike Virginia in 1861, California has not seceded from the Union, or even expressed interest in seceding. And there is no indication, at least publicly, that the U.S. Congress or the president have officially recognized the legitimacy of the NCS movement, as they did for West Virginia, prior to presentation to Congress.
Representation Matters
NCS President Preston calls California “a self-professed representative democracy, which is a dictatorship,” and referred to true representational democracy as “mob rule.”
In reality, California, like all states, currently operates as a republic, meaning that voters elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf. Because assembly and senatorial districts in California are determined by population size rather than geography, more populated parts of the state have more senators and assembly members in the state legislature, as compared to sparsely populated rural areas like Shasta. It’s a structure that’s designed to give each individual voter the same level of representation regardless of the geographical size of where they live.
In contrast, under New California’s proposed structure, each county would have one senator, regardless of population numbers. That would mean the 2.5 million people in Riverside County would have the same number of senators as the 8,500 people who live in Modoc. The model would redistribute power away from diverse urban voters to rural — and in the North State — largely white communities. It’s one way to address the overarching issue of representation that vexes many rural conservative California voters whose voice, they feel, is drowned out by an overwhelmingly urban and liberal California population.
“When you compare [us] with the mighty power of L.A., San Diego and the Bay Area, they pretty much direct the state’s actions,” said Jim Burnett, a retired engineer who voted at last Saturday’s NCS election. “We’re not represented here in Shasta County and most of rural California.”
Annelise Pierce contributed reporting for this story.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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I think your wasting your time and most definitely I call your lies, and using current issues in communities found through Artificial Intelligence you’re using it as a power play. You have the whole dynamic if you talk to the right people and yes white Americans overrun the Nor-Cal region. I am a California Native American and No! rights to govern Northern California as a 51st state, Never gonna happen! If anything this will be Indian Territory with my Artificial Intelligence knowledge that grew from my observation from myself and others. Your group more than likes views quickly as corruption and all that you mentioned to stand ground for a new state has been here for a decade now and yes due to democracy. This Nor-Cal region has been part of a slave state and sorry white American Politicians that have acknowledged this for years, you’re using this political mess as a time to grow even bigger problems. You will not get this to go through. Dream on!
Let these fools and election deniers devote every spare conspiracy-fueled minute to this idiotic proposition. It’s dead on arrival so I couldn’t possibly care less. I’m used to elected officials doing outrageously stupid things. We’re going to vote them all out and undo all the havoc, chaos and corruption of the past few years.
Que La Joke ! NCS, or whatever ridiculous name Chris Street & Kevin Crye comes up with, will go down as the biggest voting failure in the history of California. The CA legislature is required to allow all citizens to vote for a bogus proposal like this. A statewide poll several years ago re: secession was overwhelmingly in opposition. This is all part of the failure of small-minded narcistic persons. A handful of such who exist right here in Shasta County.
If you don’t have a conscience, you become a Democrat politician in the big cities. Why? Because that’s where the money and chaos is.
The high cost of living and insanity of the big cities laws starts to infect the rural areas rights and freedoms.
It is the big cities that have succeeded from California. Not rural Californians.
Correct the insane laws and behavior of big cities in California and we save California.
If you had a conscience, you would feel bad that we cut millions of dollars in healthcare premiums for the needy all so that we could give millionaires and billionaires tax breaks.
I’m not exactly sure I would call that sanity. But you do you Nick.
I have a good conscience that millions were cut from able-bodied people that can work.
And I have a good conscience that people who are not able-bodied to work. They get subsidy.
Millionaires and billionaires are job creators. I never got a job from a welfare recipient.
Lol, what a bunch of nonsense.
You’re basically advocating for slavery where the poor should work for the rich.
“You don’t have a lot of money or opportunities? Well guess what you should be working for the wealthy I mean after all they are the job creators.”
Bow down before the one you serve, Nick. You’re going to get what you deserve.
If you don’t have a conscience, you become a MAGA politician anywhere you can. Why? Because that’s where the money and chaos is.
The ultra rich think because they have money they deserve to be able to tell the majority of Americans what they should or shouldn’t do.
It’s not about being rural or urban, but moreso about a wealthy few wanting to have power over free people who decided over 200 years ago that they would have no king.
Stand up for your freedoms that our fathers won over 200 years ago, or lose them to the ultra wealthy who want to take them away from you.
Hippy,
Millionaires and billionaires are job creators. I know you and me never got a job from a welfare recipient.
250 years ago, the king was robbing the purse of the colonist with taxes. The colonies were farmers, ranchers, industrialist and families of all walks of life. It was the capitalism and free enterprise that created the continental army to free the colonist from the king of England.
Today the principles are still the same. Work while you are able and take care of those who are not able.
Bow down before your king.
The common folk and their purses are being robbed because of tariffs and inflation.
You go ahead and be subservient, but I am a free man.
And by the way Nick, I created my own job.
It was never given to me by a millionaire or a billionaire.
Get a life man. Like, really.
Nick, can you please list any big city that has succeeded from the State of California? While it is true urban crime is higher per capita than rural. And so is everything else, such as educational levels, job opportunity levels, Civic and cultural. That is why many of our youth leave as soon as they can from Shasta County and go to or. Don’t fool yourself in thinking. Shasta County is a paradise. You can just look at what happened at Corky’s residence and family as a sober reminder. Also remember Shasta County is a welfare county, we receive much more from the state of California then give. That money that only helps social service programs. But it also is the main contributor to infrastructure in our County. Secession is a fool’s dream of wishing life would go back to the 1950s or even further, the White nationalist confederate South before the civil war, based on a plantation -slavery economy, using tools of violent oppression and government internalized racism to keep the population in check. Nope, we’re not going back. We should learn how to live together in peace.
Minor quibble: rural crime is worse than urban crime on a per-capita basis. Violent crime for the state is 3.96 per 1000 citizens, and property (nonviolent) crime is 24.41. In Shasta County the numbers are 7.1 and 32.0. We have the third highest rate of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault of all 58 California counties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_locations_by_crime_rate
Christian,
I list all cities over 200,000 population to disintegrate into chaos over the years and generations.
1) Population overgrows in big cities.
2) Real estate runs out in big cities. Housing cost go up in big cities.
3) Free subsidies go out of control in big cities.
4) Property taxes go up to take care of free subsidies in big cities.
5) jobs run out in big cities.
6) alcohol and drug abuse escalate in big cities.
7) Democrats politicians create the illusion. It’s the wealthy property owners that need to be taxed to subsidize people who don’t want to work in big cities.
This is your big city chaos over a time period of generations.
Happy Citizen, What you said is Right-on! Thank you.
Why is it that all the people involved with this new state junk are either an election denier, or very, very closely affiliated to the election deniers?
Which by the way, where is all that massive election fraud y’all have been talking about?!?
Finally have any proof or evidence of that? Somebody? Anybody?
Crickets …
It’s too bad the rest of the California citizenry doesn’t get to vote on this. 0.003 % of the population is going to decide this for us? Republic or democracy, what makes that 0.003 % God? Give me a break! And talk about incompetence. I thought elections were supposed to be public. I didn’t hear about this supposed election and I vote in all elections.
Jennifer, it was a meaningless fake election. The NCS is a fraud posing as the legitimate” government” of California.
Unbelievable what a small obnoxious group can come up with in order to create chaos. California is one of the most successful states in our union, 4th largest GPR of all the states more than many small countries. But this small, anti Democratic group has nothing to do but continuously complain about everything and anything. Why don’t you people come up with a positive focus like helping your fellow man (especially the unhoused) and focus on taking care of children i.e. childcare, providing food, education, etc. Think Bigger and stop snivelling.
California used to have the Assembly represented by population and the Senate by geography as in the federal government, but SCOTUS declared it unconstitutional, insisting on 1 person; 1 vote for both houses. New California would have to follow the same rule.
Hi Janet,
This is a relevant point and something I didn’t include in the story – Reynolds v. Sims (1964). On the topic of population versus geographic representation in state legislatures, Chief Justice Earl Warren opined, “legislators represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests.”
This is unbelievable that because a few like minded people want to rule against a majority and impose their ideas on everyone else is not the basis of a representative democracy! It is a fascist takeover!
Forcing their beliefs and crying and whining that their beliefs have been discriminated against is like the entitled spoiled child demanding everyone bow to his/her beliefs!
Because the Republicans are currently in power they think they can steal our freedoms and violate our rules of law!
They are in for a violent surprise if they think they can hijack the state government!
Another ridiculous idea.
Are you suggesting California is a total failure just as it moves into 4th place as one of the largest economies of the world? You are completely delusional and your state is going nowhere, just like the failed State of Jefferson.
Brad, not only that but this small extreme far right group of secessionists and their klam, a few of whom are on the SCBOS, has cost Shasta County Taxpayers Millions to pimp the propaganda and has even put C. Street, a New CA State officer secessionists on out county payroll. Vote the secessionist supporters out!
Jon, I hope you hear me when I say:
You aren’t convincing a single person to your side!
You’re doing the opposite and helping people to realize that they should be on the side of sanity!!
Yelling is fun, init!!??
Keep up the good work, you are doing a great job of showing people why they should think other than you do!! Very effective!!
Many people in this community feel the same as I!!
Now calm down and have a good night.
This article was funny. Thanks for the afternoon entertainment, Nivin and Madison. But…First, the silly, extreme MAGA white nationalist neo-confederate delusional trumpian fanaticism called New California State (NCS) will never happen, so we could just let it rest. Why? The US Supreme Court has ruled against unilateral secession. Even if the California legislature were to approve the secession of a portion of the state, the new state would still need to be approved by the United States Congress. However, even though it will never happen, the SOJ and NCS delusion serves a purpose and functions like the trump Cult Kool-Aid, it’s a toxic tonic that feeds their delusional high. Clint Curtis, a quack pimping election lies for years, is one of the local leaders of the conspiracy and neo-confederate movement. To have a legal address needed to be appointed ROV, Curtis actually lived with Patty Plum, of the defunct “Elections Commission Joke”, famous for her time and again proven false yet persistent claims of “Rigged Elections” and renowned for calling people who don’t drink her delusional Kool-Aid, “Uncircumcised Philistines.” And as we know, yesterday, Pattie’s partner in delusional election conspiracy, Laura Hobbs, lost yet again in court and came sniveling before the board of supervisors, that she has to pay court costs. Sidebar: Hobbs has cost Shasta County over $107,000 so far, money that could help give L.E. or the D.A.’s assistants, people who actually fight crime, a well-deserved raise. But Hobbs can dry her alligator tears, I’m sure the local neo-confederate militia-secessionists will pick up the tab. Sidebar two: Yeah, sorry, but when you lose in court, you usually pay the other side’s attorney’s costs. Sidebar Three: When you’re trump-drunk, delusions seem real; and Anselmo better have fattened her court kitty, because she’s too trump-drunk drunk to drive in a court of law. To conclude, the SOJ-NCS folks are the same people who dream of the resurrection of the Southern Cross neo-conference South, who threaten violence and could spark a small civil war if they start shooting outside of the militia’s confines. Sidebar four: Yeah, the United States of America actually won the Civil War, so, put down that trumpin Kool-Aid, it’s addictive, bad for your health, and a dangerous menace to civil society.
Very well said, Chris. You’ve covered all the bases!
Hey Jon,
Again you make me laugh! Sounds like you’re in favor of minority rule. Are you?
In the past you have called me all kinds of names assuming because I have am not a raving, drooling, ideologue I must be a liberal blah blah blah. I assure you Jon, I am not a liberal, but I do strongly disagree with you on most every issue. Don’t bother to reply as you’re a broken record.
As far as California Jon, I invite you to move to Idaho, or Mississippi, or well anywhere where people think just like you. Think how happy you will be, how marvelous your life will become. Do it Jon, do it now!
How would NCS survive without monies from the counties
they want to exclude?
I hope to God this is not going to happen without everyone’s approval. Who can afford to move to the counties not included so we don’t have to put up with more crap from counties like Shasta? Another insane idea from the likes of Crye, Street and Curtis. How a county can be so physically beautiful and so ugly politically, is beyond a thinking person’s comprehension. To think there are so many other counties that might go along with this stupid idea? Scary as hell. If you don’t like California, head for Idaho or Tennessee or another extreme red state (sorry for the residents of red states who are not extremists. I know how it is, living in Shasta County).
Morons.
Again…
First of all, the state of California is a total mess! This is no small part has occurred under Democrat, tyranny! No, the current state does not represent a good portion of the state of California! The last election prove that as more people swung to the red side! The only reason anybody reports the insignificance of this is because they are afraid of losing! The north state and certainly Shasta County along with others deserve better than what Sacramento has been dealing us! The people of Shasta County are still overwhelmingly Republican! The small (noisy and Pesky) minority always seems to get their point across through one-sided media! The southern to mid section of Oregon is also very close to joining with Idaho! Many people they feel exactly the same way! We do not want to be controlled by the left as it has turned out to be a complete and utter failure ! The state of California has been flooded with illegal migrants, lawless, homeless, all fed by a steady diet of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and Yes, liberal ideologues.
Jon, on the one hand you talk about the tyranny of California, then you also talk about all the lawless people and lawlessness.
Wouldn’t those tyrants be forcing people to obey their laws?
So you don’t like those tyrants, but you also don’t like those lawless people not following the laws of … tyranny??
So what you’re say is…”down with tyrants and the lawless too”??
Hilarious!
What about the rest of Californians?
Jon, I concur. Thank you for a no non-sense comment of Truth!!!