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REDDING, California Mark Baird is a third-generation Californian who hopes to one day be a first-generation Jeffersonian.
Baird, like many in California s sprawling, mostly rural north, is disillusioned with his state s Sacramento-based government, which he believes no longer represents northern interests.
That s why Baird and many others in the 23 counties above Sacramento have officially declared the reclamation of their state, even if it means breaking away and starting anew in the proposed 51st state of Jefferson, named for the third U.S. president. People are basically hopeless here, said Baird, who lives in Siskiyou County. We’ve gone from being economically viable and net contributors to the general fund to being what the rest of California jokingly refer to as the welfare counties. But, we weren’t the welfare counties. We were made the welfare counties by the state of California.