Conservative Oregon counties look to shift state boundaries and be a part of reliably Republican Idaho

Chimney sweep Grant Darrow was a major supporter of the Greater Idaho movement.Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail

When people describe the differences between eastern and western Oregon, they often speak in colors.

The rainy green of the coast contrasts sharply with the dunes of an arid interior and its expanses of sun-bleached wheat. Then there are the political shades: the blue to the west that has kept the Democrats in office for nearly 40 years, while east of the Cascade Mountains the Republican red runs so deep that in some counties four out of five voters backed Donald Trump a year 2020

Such geographic and political divisions are rife in the US, generating a resentment and disenchantment that have fueled frustrated undercurrents from the Tea Party to Trumpism.

In eastern Oregon, a group says they have a solution: Join Idaho, one of the US’s most dependable red states, by pushing the state line far west — a sort of extreme maneuver that would redraw the national map to include the Separate citizens by their political beliefs. The Greater Idaho Movement, as it is known, proposes taking over nearly two-thirds of Oregon’s land and bringing it under Boise’s rule.

Breakaway Counties in Oregon

In eastern Oregon, 11 counties have already voted to commit to joining Idaho

counties that voted

for joining Idaho

Counties voting next

about joining Idaho

The Globe and Mail, source: majoridaho.org

Breakaway Counties in Oregon

In eastern Oregon, 11 counties have already voted to commit to joining Idaho

counties that voted

for joining Idaho

Counties voting next

about joining Idaho

The Globe and Mail, source: majoridaho.org

Breakaway Counties in Oregon

In eastern Oregon, 11 counties have already voted to commit to joining Idaho

counties that voted

for joining Idaho

Counties voting next

about joining Idaho

The Globe and Mail, source: majoridaho.org

The concept, seductive to conservatives, is among the most palpable expressions of the ill will that permeates modern US politics, even if critics dismiss it as absurd. “I’m 76 years old and if I don’t die by the time I’m 111, it won’t be done,” said Susan Roberts, a Wallowa County councilwoman who has been in politics for 40 years. “If you want to move to Idaho or Kentucky or anywhere, you can do that.”

Some in eastern Oregon counter: Why uproot yourself when you can bring Idaho to you?

The idea caught on. Eleven rural Oregon counties have already voted to begin discussions about joining Idaho. Politicians in Oregon and Idaho have prepared legislation to kick-start negotiations. Polls in both states show high levels of public support for the idea, and money is being raised to hire lobbyists.

“Time to split or succumb,” as Grant Darrow put it in a 2015 letter to the editor that helped spark the current movement. Mr. Darrow is a chimney sweep from eastern Oregon whose job once took him into homes in an area the size of New Jersey. Conversations in those living rooms, he says, prompted him to propose a change.

Matt McCaw, spokesman for the Greater Idaho movement, outside his home in Powell Butte.Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail

“Everyone was upset about what was going on in Salem,” he said in the Oregon capital. “People were just angry.” The split from the Coastal Liberals just seemed to make sense.

“They don’t want us. We don’t want to be here,” he said. “And the people of Idaho agree with our cause.”

Idaho Republicans see the prospect of additional resources and a voting bloc that would cement their grip on an already conservative stronghold.

“We’re looking at this huge landmass over there in Oregon. Check out their resources, from water to wood to minerals. Why wouldn’t we at least have a chat?” said Barbara Ehardt, an Idaho representative who intends to draft a bill proposing a discussion about moving the state line.

In eastern Oregon, 11 counties have already voted to support a move to Idaho, pledging local commissioners to meet regularly to discuss the idea. These meetings are typically sparsely attended, and a recent drive through the region – with its wind-sculpted landscapes, mountain ranges and narrow river gorges – showed few signs of roadside support.

But complaints are widespread. People have resented elements of the state’s progressive policies, including minimum wage increases, climate-related measures, decriminalizing drug possession and more recently Measure 114, which will require new permits to buy a gun and ban the possession of magazines containing more than 10 rounds. (The measure is challenged by a lawsuit filed by Harney County, one of the 11 who voted for Greater Idaho.)

“We believe almost nothing like it on the West Side,” said Matt McCaw, a small business owner who is now a spokesman for Greater Idaho. He called state borders an imaginary line established at a very different time in history.

In 2015, Grant Darrow sent a letter to the editor proposing breaking off portions of Oregon, a notion that has become the Greater Idaho Movement today. Mr Darrow keeps the letter framed at his home in Cove.Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail

Today, “where the state line runs makes no sense in this state. Because it’s not where the cultural, political and economic divide is.”

The pandemic in particular has roused dissatisfaction. “People in eastern Oregon didn’t like the lockdown,” McCaw said. “And it was forced upon us by the west side of the state.”

History, supporters say, is on their side. Other borders have been shifted, albeit slightly, in recent decades following an agreement between two states. The US Congress must approve such a change.

Still, no one needs to have a precise idea of ​​what Greater Idaho might cost just yet. Critics have suggested that Idaho would have to pay many billions of dollars in compensation. Proponents say the state’s eastern counties are home to 9 percent of the population, and therefore Idaho could be expected to shoulder 9 percent of the state’s debt.

Nonetheless, they say it’s much more viable than other self-government concepts like Jefferson State, an idea to create an entirely new West Coast state.

And the 11 county votes should be taken seriously, said Dennis Linthicum, an Oregon state senator.

“King George III. probably should have given it serious thought when 13 colonies pleaded for their freedom,” said Mr. Linthicum, who recently proposed legislation to open negotiations in the greater Idaho area. He calls Alberta’s recently passed sovereignty law “a bit inspiring”.

But even for him, actually redrawing the map isn’t a top priority.

“We get some conversation started and that’s the main thing,” he said. “Is it really pushing the line and that’s the be-all and end-all? I don’t believe.”

But for others, Greater Idaho’s very existence reflects a grim modern reality. Oregon author and commentator Robert Leo Heilman accuses leaders who have tracked social fractures for their own political gain.

“I blame the angry people less than the people who intentionally piss them off,” he said.

“In Dante’s Inferno, the discordants occupy the eighth ring of Hell. Just off the ground,” he added. “Hell, the lechers are on the second ring. Choose your sins wisely.”