An effort has been launched in Maryland to separate five western counties fed up with liberal leadership from the rest of the state, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The move has been led by Maryland resident Scott Strzelczyk’s Western Maryland Initiative. Strzelczyk, 49, is an information technology consultant who considers himself a constitutionalist.
“If you think you have a long list of grievances and it’s been going on for decades, and you can’t get it resolved, ultimately this is what you have to do,” Strzelczyk, who resides in Carroll County, told the Post. “Otherwise you are trapped.”
Strzelczyk told the Post he wants to live in a smaller state with more “personal liberty, less government intrusion, less federal entanglements.” Among his other political notions are putting gay marriage to a vote and abolishing the U.S. Department of Education.
The five western counties — Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Carroll — comprise just 11 percent of the Maryland’s population, according to 2010 Census estimates, and vote overwhelmingly Republican.
Stzelczyk has yet to push county commissioners to put the initiative to voters.
Other secession efforts that have cropped up across the nation this summer have moved closer to achieving their goals. Colorado’s Weld County voted to put a 51st state initiative on the November ballot last month. Last week, the board of California’s Siskiyou County voted to secede from that state.
[Image via Shutterstock / Glynnis Jones]
