One Calexit campaign to split state east-west gets support from Brexit backers

BRISTOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 01: Leader of Ukip Nigel Farage (R) holds a press conference with the party's new donor Arron Banks on October 1, 2014 in Bristol, England. BRISTOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 01: Leader of Ukip Nigel Farage (R) holds a press conference with the party's new donor Arron Banks on October 1, 2014 in Bristol, England. Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close One Calexit campaign to split state east-west gets support from Brexit backers 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

Brexit proponents Nigel Farage and Arron Banks recently returned to Great Britain from a trip to California, but not before helping to raise $1 million for a Calexit campaign that would split California into eastern and western divisions, as the U.K.'s Sunday Times and The Daily Mail report.

The funds were reportedly raised at several events around Orange County by donors who "feel they've been left out since Reagan."

"A lot of people who fund Silicon Valley and all the big farmers were there," said Andy Wigmore, a spokesperson for Farage. "They believe now Trump has won, this is their chance ... all the big money has come out of the woodwork."

The vertical California split would create what would likely be an eastern, rural, conservative-leaning California including Sacramento and San Diego, and a liberal and more metropolitan California along most of the coast, comprising San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles.

"It would be portrayed as the Hollywood elites versus the people, breaking up the bad government," Banks reportedly said of the idea. "Seventy-eight percent of people in California are unhappy with their government. It's the world's sixth largest economy and it's very badly run."

It's not clear what poll Banks is citing in his quote, but he may be referencing a Public Policy Institute of California poll from May of 2016 that found 78 percent of registered Republicans were dissatisfied with the direction in which California was moving. Sixty-six percent of registered Democrats in that poll stated that they think California is moving in the right direction.

Nevertheless, after being reunited by "polling expert" Gerry Gunster and former state assemblyman Scott Baugh, Farage and Banks are hoping to push forward the idea, and get it onto the midterm election ballot in 2018. If it is successful, it could mean a step towards allocating two U.S. senators and more electoral college votes for the GOP.

"The money was pledged to take it to the next level," Banks added of the fundraising. "This could be the greatest political showdown ever."

It should be noted that the proposed East-West split campaign is different from other Calexit campaigns, like that of Yes California, that seek to facilitate the state's recession from the union.