51st State Initiative touts "OVERWHELMING success," works to broaden secession

If you thought the folks behind the 51st State Initiative were discouraged when only five of eleven counties where the ballot measure ran voted to secede from Colorado, you'd be wrong.

The organizers are thrilled by what they describe as an "OVERWHELMING success" (the caps are theirs).

They're also readying for an event tonight that's intended to help spread the secession message even further in the future.

Here's part of a post-election statement shared on the 51st State Initiative Facebook page, which has an impressive 15,000-plus likes:

Putting last night's vote in context... 5 counties DID vote to proceed. A MINIMUM of 43% of voters supported the initiative for all of the other six counties. We've gone from 0% support to a minimum of 43% support in all counties in just over 4 months. This is a RESOUNDING message and should be viewed as an OVERWHELMING success.

The 43 percent figure is important, as is clear by the subsequent posting of a map in which those counties that registered that much support but didn't carry a majority are colored orange -- designated as "significant citizen support."

And just because the election's over doesn't mean secessionists have stopped promoting their philosophy. At 6 p.m. tonight at the Lamar Community Building, backers are holding what's termed on a Facebook events page as an "informational meeting" about the 51st State Initiative. The pitch reads like so:

We will be meeting in the multi-purpose room of the Community building in Lamar. We want strong public attendance to listen to the detailed proposals brought by the 51st State Initiative Invite as many of your friends as possible. We are looking for people that are willing to join in on the discussion. I look forward to seeing y'all there.

Hopefully we can get folks from throughout the region: Kiowa, Crowley, Otero, Bent, Prowers and Baca counties.

Another such meeting will take place on Wednesday, November 13, in Burlington. The Facebook events page for that gathering can be accessed by clicking here.

Plenty of comments on the 51st State Initiative page are optimistic, too. A case in point reads: "YOU ARE AWESOME! Pursue if you elect to do so... This country has no representation anymore." But there are also quite a few posts expressing disappointment that Weld County, in particular, nixed the initiative. Here's one take that tries to put this shortfall into perspective:

This has been a hugely successful endeavor.......It may not have won initially. But this vote was just a barometer to see how much pressure is on the idea. And there is a lot of pressure for such a preliminary stage of formation. I'm not surprised in Weld County because Greeley and Windsor are more Urban. And It does not surprise me in other more rural counties because there is a big sentimentality to keeping CO the square state.......I think the Initiative will continue to build momentum and afford rural folks a better voice against the noise of the progressive machine that dominates our politics today.

Bottom line: The 51st State Initiative isn't going away anytime soon.

Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.

More from our Politics archive: "Five counties vote for 51st state question: Top twenty secession memes."