IG: I could see this, easily. Six more west coast states - 3 city states, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco; and the remaining country-side broken into 3 more states - Southern CA, Middle CA or just CA, and Northern CA.
You could do the same in Illinois - make chicago its own state and free the rest of the state for future prosperity.
Definately in nys. Make nyc it's own state and free upstate for future prosperity.
Maybe even Miami, and possibly Galveston, Tx. Don't forget detroit.
Great thing is that if you give those cities statehood and they go lib/sem as they will, the remainder of the state balances that out with a strong gop/conservative presence and although the lib/dems will think of this as a victory, they will soon see the folly of their economic failings and the 'lands of the free giveaway' will simply become pits of economic despair begging the federal gov't to bail them out which should have a very negative impact on how the lib/dems spend other people's money.
It's sort of like gun control. Whenever the dems lay into it and fail and lose some of their numbers as a result, some of those remaining are smart enough to keep their mouths shut so they can keep their jobs. Economics goes the same way.