The “Greater Idaho” campaign to redraw the border between the Gem State and Oregon has drawn harsh criticism from top Democrats in the Idaho state legislature.
On February 15, the Idaho House of Representatives passed a resolution to initiate formal talks about absorbing red areas of eastern Oregon where some residents feel unrepresented in the Democrat-dominated state, KGW reported.
Idaho Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow (D) told Fox Digital on March 5 she hopes and expects the campaign will not actually translate to new borders between the neighboring states.
“I’m very pleased this measure has virtually no chance of advancing into reality,” she said. “It would be bad for all involved and bad for the country, and I am opposed to it at all levels.”
Similarly, on February 16, the day after the resolution passed the state House, Minority Leader Rep. Ilana Rubel (D), went so far as to argue that the movement to reconsider the shape of states’ borders could herald “civil war,” per KWG:
“We should not be self-segregating by ideology like this,” she said. “I think we’re on a path to civil war if we keep going down this path. We have got to learn to get along better and work together better. The answer cannot be to carve up the country and redraw lines that have been in place for a century or more, just so we can only be surrounded by people that perfectly agree with us.”
However, some Republicans argue that allowing conservative-leaning parts of the Beaver State to join Idaho would improve representation for the people in those areas.
Mark Simmons, who once served as speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and is now the vice president of Citizens for Greater Idaho, wrote in the Idaho Statesman, “We are dismayed by the manner in which Oregon government has marginalized our values and villainized our resource-based livelihoods.”
Proponents of the Greater Idaho movement argue that because the northwestern parts of Oregon hold a preponderance of political power in the state, conservative voters have little chance of advancing their political priorities, as Breitbart News noted in February:
Counties should want to become part of Idaho because “Oregon will continue to violate more and more American values and American freedoms because northwestern Oregon has 79% of Oregon’s population and voters,” the movement’s website explained.
“Oregon refuses to protect citizens from criminals, rioters, wildfire arsonists, illegals, and the homeless, but then infringes on your right to defend your family with firearms. Idaho enforces the law,” the site continued, adding another reason was Idaho has a thriving economy.
KGW noted that the February 15 resolution is only a step toward “serious conversations” about the possibility of Idaho absorbing parts of Oregon and that any agreement between the states to shift their borders would need congressional approval to move forward.
The Oregon residents who support the Greater Idaho movement are not alone in seeking to opt out of governance they do not feel represents them.
In 2021, as Breitbart News noted, residents of the Atlanta, Georgia, suburb of Buckhead launched an initiative to deannex from the city, due in large part to concerns about crime.
“Our [agenda], which is irrespective of politics, is just taking control back of our city,” Buckhead City Committee CEO Bill White told Breitbart News
A bill that would have given the residents of Buckhead the chance to vote to deannex from Atlanta was defeated in the Georgia Senate on Thursday, with all of the body’s Democrat members and ten Republicans voting no.
You can follow Michael Foster on Twitter at @realmfoster.
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