Billionaire Draper Abandons Push to Split California Into Three

Billionaire Tim Draper is dropping his bid to split California into three.

The decision comes after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday removed his proposition from the November ballot and said he had 30 days to respond to a group seeking to block it from future elections, too.

Asked if he would continue fighting for the measure, Draper said in an email to Bloomberg News that "the same six lawyers are going to make the decision. What would be the point? They have just proven that California has a runaway government and the people have no say."

Draper, a venture capitalist, sought the initiative because he said the world’s fifth-largest economy is “nearly ungovernable” under the current system. Asked if there was anything else he planned to do to make the government more accountable, he said he was "still recovering from the shock."

Draper wanted voters to approve three smaller state governments: Northern California, encompassing San Francisco and 39 other counties; California, covering Los Angeles and five other counties; and Southern California, accounting for areas including Fresno and San Diego.

The Planning and Conservation League, which filed the lawsuit against the measure, argued that the state constitution requires a two-thirds vote of both legislative chambers before a proposal for a significant change of government can be put to voters. It said the measure would waste billions of dollars and create chaos.