Plan to split California into 6 states advances

[Slander and/or Libel]

Whatever happens, the US legislature would need to approve it, and that seems like a high bar.

[Slander and/or Libel]

Seems to me that the upshot here would be to concentrate representation a bit in Silicon Valley (very slightly in Central California too), at the expense of the rest of the state (especially Northern California and Jefferson). At the present population per representative in California, Silicon Valley would have about a half fewer representatives (that is, one half of one representative fewer) as it would have under this plan. Northern California and Jefferson would each have about a third more (one third of one representative) presently than under this plan.

I know talking about fractional representatives is a little abstract, but it's a real thing that would ever so slightly concentrate the representation of the state a little more in the areas Draper prefers.

[Slander and/or Libel]

Democrats would be hurt in the electoral college but would get a big boost in the Senate. I like this plan.

How would they get a huge boost in the Senate?  They already have two senators from CA as it is.  Of the new states created by this plan, two voted for Romney, and one of the Obama states only narrowly went to him by a margin of a couple of points (in a race that he won nationally).  So why would this mean a net gain of more than 1 or 2 Senators for the Democrats over the status quo?

Exactly right. Even if the net gain is 5 Democratic and 5 Republican senate seats, totally even, that slides the balance of power in the Senate (as currently constituted) toward Republicans from Democrats. Right now it's 55-45, and it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. With 110 seats, with the extra 10 split equally, it'd be 50-60, with 66 votes needed to break a filibuster. Currently Democrats control 55% of the chamber, and with an even split in additional Senators in this plan, they'd control 54.5% of the chamber.

There are systemic changes that should take massive priority over this.