Quick, note, although it doesn’t really change the discussion: We’ve got 55 electoral votes, not 155 ;)
I believe we are also something like the 8th largest economy in the world. California’s awesome.
Personally, I don’t want to split the state. Wouldn’t it mean things like dividing our UC and CSU systems?
I also don’t like ideas of secession. Partly, because I don’t think simply disagreeing with other states on issues is enough of a reason to leave—we’d all be separate countries if that were the case, wouldn’t we? There’s got to be a sense of “for better or worse,” a sense that if we disagree we’ll discuss and debate and find compromise. Parly, becaues the most CalExit movement of the last election was led by figures with odd links to Russia… And partly, because I have a suspicion (though I’ve never bothered to research the matter) that if it were to happen, it’d be even more of a nightmare than the whole “Brexit” debacle.