If it’s attention the northeastern Colorado counties threatening secession wanted, they’ve got it.

Weld County officials irked by action during the Democrat-dominated legislative session recruited 10 other counties to the idea of leaving the state to form their own.

They said their interests were ill-represented by metro-centric lawmakers who ignored rural sensibilities when they voted for tighter gun laws and threatened the livelihood of farmers and ranchers with new renewable energy standards that may hike the cost of doing business.

“They feel they have been ignored. That’s what this is all about,” said state Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, who is running for governor against incumbent Democrat John Hickenlooper. His district includes all or part of all 11 dissident counties. “People need to be heard.”

But as elected officials publicly debated formation of North Colorado, circulated petitions and surveyed citizens deciding to put question the fall ballot in eight counties so far, the message was received — loud and clear — in Hickenlooper’s office.

“If this talk of a 51st state is about politics designed to divide us, it’s destructive,” Hickenlooper said. “But if it is about sending a message, then I see our responsibility to lean in and do a better job of listening.”

However, he said, the hurt being felt in rural counties is not due to background checks on gun sales, civil unions for gays or expanded renewable energy.

“In fact, these are popular proposals across communities large and small,” Hickenlooper said. “The same is true of our efforts to protect water for agricultural issues, expand broadband into rural areas and promote tourism and economic diversity across the state.”

The notion of breaking up with Colorado has evolved into an almost heroic calling for some supporters.

“I would argue that this is not radical, but is something that our framers envisioned,” said Jeffrey Hare, a Weld County man who founded the 51st State Initiative Facebook page, which has attracted more than 11,000 likes.

Critics, however, say the North Colorado proposal is short on detail and long on petulance.

“I think some people in northern Colorado are frustrated that the party they are usually aligned with (the GOP) does not dominate the state legislature nor the governor’s office,” said long-time Colorado State University political science professor John Straayer. “It’s mostly about blowing off steam. A lot of sound and fury but not much else.”

If the secession effort is successful, there will be a lot of expensive infrastructure to purchase from the state of Colorado, including a prison system and maybe even a state university — which presumably would be the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

“There would be a whole host of things they would have to work through,” said said University of Colorado political science professor Kenneth Bickers.

But if the counties do depart, North Colorado would pack a mighty economic punch.

The secessionist counties contain much of Colorado’s breadbasket and a good chunk of its oil and gas production.

Four of the top five ag-producing counties in the state, at least in terms of dollar value, could be within North Colorado’s borders. Weld County alone is the top producer of grain, beef cattle, dairy product and sugar beets.

Weld is also home to more than 20,000 active oil and gas wells, the largest number of active wells of any county in the U.S. and producing 81 percent of the state’s oil and and 18 percent of Colorado’s natural gas. All that production helped contribute $1.6 billion to the state and local governments, school districts and special districts in 2012.

The new state could also become a philosophical nirvana to those now chafing within the confines of the Centennial State. They could frame new laws and policies that discourage gun control and abortion while encouraging more tax breaks for oil and gas companies.

The new state of North Colorado could even raise the speed limit if it wanted, Bickers said.

“There are a whole lot of things and policies that could be adopted that would likely be more in tune with the preferences of people living in those counties,” he said.

But the 51st state would lack political might as the

least-populous state in the Union, with about 60 percent the population of Wyoming.

And secession might not work out to break-even for the rogue counties — including Moffat, which this week said it will put a secession question on the ballot with the intention of joining Wyoming.

Together, the counties

collected $106 million in state and other government funding in 2009, the last time the figures were tabulated by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

Those same counties — whose main commerce depends on an adequate and certain supply of water — would probably find access to that resource even more difficult to come by, said state Rep. Dave Young, a Democrat, whose district includes Greeley.

“We depend on water that comes from other places other than Weld County,” Young said. “How much is it going to cost us to get that water?”

“What they are proposing is just not realistic,” he said.

Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/montewhaley

Denver Post mobile editor Eric Lubbers contributed to this report.