January 22, 2021 01:42 PM UTC

Campaign Kicks Off To Give Wyoming Weld-Sized Package

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• by: Colorado Pols

A nascent campaign in conservative Weld County to secede from the state of Colorado and join our northern neighbor of Wyoming–which would result in an interesting new shape for that formerly square state–is reportedly set to kick off next week:

Here is the petition. We will have the signatures pages printed next week and can start as soon as they are finished printing.

We, the voters of Weld County, request the Weld County Commissioners place a ballot question for the November 2021 ballot.

We wish the Commissioners to ask the people of Weld County to vote “yes” or “no” on the following issue;

To give the Commissioners power to represent the citizens of Weld County in exploring the option to move Weld County to Wyoming. This power will include the responsibility to approach the State Houses of Colorado and Wyoming, the Governors of both states, as well as state officials in order to establish what the requirements are to ensure smooth transition of the move.

It’s only slightly less preposterous than the 2013 attempt by 11 rural Colorado counties to secede and form the new state of North Colorado, which failed in 6 out of the 11 counties where the measure appeared on the ballot–including in Weld County, the most populous of the bunch. Switching from one state to another seems like a lot less work than starting a whole new one from scratch, after all. Weld County’s 342,000 residents would significantly change the makeup of Wyoming’s current 578,000-strong population, however, and Greeley would become the newly masculated state of Wyoming’s largest city. Given the wealth Weld County would offer relative to the need for state services for its population, we could easily see the state of Wyoming passing on the “upgrade” despite it making the state look much more, you know, like a man.

Back in 2013, readers will recall, then-Weld County commissioner now state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer was a supporter of the failed effort to create the state of North Colorado. Now two former GOP state legislators turned Weld commishes, Perry Buck and Lori Saine, will decide if they want to follow her example. What better way to beat term limits, right?

It’s not going to happen, of course. But it’s a great way for Republicans in one smallish part of the state to make Republicans across Colorado look silly. Much like the farcical failed recall campaigns against Gov. Jared Polis, this is the unserious stuff people who don’t expect to win elections anymore do to console themselves.