In many ways it's worse.  Splitting te state might be a good idea but I'm not so sure the proposed split is the best idea

If it improves the economy over there then sure.

I haven't closely studied the figures myself so my assumption could be wrong, but I suspect that many people in "conservative California" would argue that the punitive regulatory regime and high taxes imposed on them by "liberal California" were artificially holding them back; and potentially propping up "liberal California".

Hypothetically speaking, if this was the case you would expect to see the "wealthy" half of California struggle post-split with the "poor" part of California thriving.

I dont think splitting is ever a good solution because it would only lead to more and more splits. How long before other states with similar demographics split as well? PA outside the Philadelphia region is republican while the area around Philly is highly democrat for an example...how long before we follow suit? In fact, how long before the south tries to secede again? The way I see it, it's better to have both competing parties in a state that absolute party domination...that way there are actual checks and balances.

California's socioeconomic condition is a lot more broad than that.

The conservative area has, bar none, the best agricultural sector in the world. Period. 365 growing days a year. It is America's veggie basket as one county produces 75% of the world's output for artichokes. As stated, I think the conservative side would re-align regulations to get their mining sector back in order which would benefit the new state significantly. Remember, this new proposed state would have a $260 billion economy - larger than Finland.

Likewise, the rest of CA would still have the massive movie and tech sectors which are big in their economy. Sillicon valley is still a major force, albiet waining, and SF is a major hub of internet startups which yields massive amounts of growth and capital. However, one wonders what their taxation and spending model would be like. CA is notorious for welfare, and I question how it would handle being split up - if the liberal part would continue with its bread & circus act, or if it would finally find the cojones to deal with that area of its spending problem. Likewise, taxation would be interesting. At any rate, a split would yield an interesting case study to see what happens. Could be the start of a lot more splits which could be good for America. There are about 3-4 other movements to split states up along cultural divides, which could benefit the nation as we could decentralize government further.

This is the main reason many states need to split ...

Because one political ideology has a strong majority of the population in a region it means that the views of the minority are being completely ignored in both state and federal elections. If you split a completely uncompetitive state (like California) into multiple states that each are far more competitive the net result should be better governance for everyone in those newly competitive states.

I think the main problem, though, is that CA is in such a mess, the entire state of 30 million plus people is going to go down like a sinking ship. Their laws are an absolute mess, and no one has the willpower to fix anything whatsoever. Therefore, the question becomes: Does California and everyone go down the drain, or those that made and supported the current mess?

As HS has said, splitting along political divides may be a good thing. If you do such a thing, then you allow various ideologies to be fully vetted. Hyper-liberal areas and hyper-conservative regions can finally make policies as they see fit, and allow for more rapid prototyping of different governmental models. Not every state needs to split, but I think there are a lot of states like CA, Washington, Oregon, Texas, New York, and a few others that could potentially benefit from it, as their demographics are not similar in distribution.

I say, let them do it.

Then we'll be up to the 57 states that Obama visited for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr3ftmvO7Oc

I think it wouldn't work... only because they'd never be able to agree to how much of California's crushing debt they'd have to keep.

Interestingly Texas has the right to split into 5 states at anytime they want.

By the title I thought it was about ejecting California from the USA, so when they fail it'd be more isolated like Ireland, instead of something like Greece.

People think the current defaults a problems?  Just wait till the 8th largest economy in the world defaults (California.)

They can't figure out what to cut, and the few things they do cut are the last things you'd want to... and they can't really raise taxes since buisnesses are leaving 5 or so a week as it is... even some democrats are saying no new taxes.