8 Colorado Counties Looking at Secession

Counties working towards secession marked in red

Eight Colorado counties have been the legal tasks required to work their way to forming their own state. Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld, and Yuma counties say they are tired of the "hypocrisy coming out of Denver".

Weld County Commissioners Sean Conway and Douglas Rademacher are leading the effort, of the mostly rural counties. They and others point out their anger with laws that have been passed, over recent months. The great majority of residents are unhappy over various new laws, including gun laws, which fifty-five of the state's sixty-four counties are suing over.

However, on Wednesday, Governor Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 252 that is extremely devastating to the economies of rural areas, as it requires them to spend twenty percent of their budget on renewable energy. For many that was the last straw.

Conway says that he and his constituents are tired of being ignored, by the rest of the state. Some have called it a "war on rural Colorado." According to Rademacher, counties in Nebraska and Kansas have expressed interest in joining them. If not allowed to form a new state they may try and switch from Colorado to Wyoming.

For the counties to form a new state, the population of each state would have to vote in approval. A goal which the counties are working on seeing happening this November. If a county's residents approve leaving the state the Colorado state legislature, Governor, and US Congress would all have to then approve it. Out of seventy-five attempts, only five have been successful, in US history. Vermont successfully left New York, Kentucky left Virginia, Tennessee left North Carolina, Maine left Massachusetts, and West Virginia left Virginia.

Both Conway and Rademacher doubt that the state or Governor will allow them to leave. However they still plan on getting the issue that far. If nothing else they want to draw attention to their cause against what they see as unConstitutional actions, on the parts of the state government and Governor's office.