BREAKING: CALIFORNIA ELECTORAL INITIATIVE BACKERS GIVE UP

LAT: BREAKING NEWS: Electoral initiative backers give up

Plagued by a lack of money, supporters of a statewide initiative drive to change the way California's 55 electoral votes are apportioned, first revealed here by Top of the Ticket in July, are pulling the plug on that effort.

In an exclusive report to appear on this website late tonight and in Friday's print editions, The Times' Dan Morain reports that the proposal to change the winner-take-all electoral vote allocation to one by congressional district is virtually dead with the resignation of key supporters, internal disputes and a lack of funds. The reality is hundreds of thousands of signatures must be gathered by the end of November to get the measure on the June 2008 ballot.

Although Maine (since 1972) and Nebraska (since 1996) award electoral votes to the popular vote winner in each congressional district, the California initiative ignited a national controversy with Democratic critics charging it was a power grab by Republicans who are regularly shut out of any California electoral votes by the current winner-take-all system. Democrats have won all the state's 55 electoral votes in the last four presidential elections....

The initiative began in July with an air of mystery. Its text and paperwork were filed by a Republican law firm in Sacramento, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, but the actual identity of the backers was unknown. Observers noted the initiative would have helped independent candidates because its text specifically provided for third party or independent candidates to win electoral votes by district. Supporters said the initiative would increase California's role in presidential politics and better represent the state's diversity.

Opposition was lead by Democratic consultant Chris Lehane who received financial backing from donors such as Stephen Bing, like Lehane a Hillary Clinton backer who saw any threat to keeping all of California's electoral votes as unacceptable. "We want to to make sure this is not the Freddie Kruger of initiatives," Lehane said today, "that comes back to life. We'll continue to monitor it."

--Andrew Malcolm

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2007/09/breaking-news-e.html

I've never seen a candidate for president. The states I've lived in have NEVER been in play.

I think if all states were divided then there would be some reason for candidates to visit some part of each state.

That being said it was a screw job to just do California along.

As Texas proves, when the Repugs gerrymander the districts they tilt the balance to them.

Overall, the news out of California is good. We don't need another leaking boat to bail right now.

They cannot be trusted.

and this was included in the questioning, along with many other issues.

I was asked if I was registered to vote and then the questions took a Democratic turn---I don't know if the questions would have been different if I had answered that first question differently.

But----there were at least 4 or 5 questions on this proposed referendum -which I of course, oppose!

Chalk one up for the good guys. :thumbsup:

Now if we can just get rid of the Steroid popping / Bad-acting Numskull we'll have half a chance

California THIS TIME

We need to keep an eye on these idiots

Though they do have a point... but would only work if we did this in every state of the union...

Better yet, get rid of the Electoral College but that is a whole different ball of wax

They will never stop trying to steal CA. It's too big and they're too greedy.

thanks for posting this DMM.

an effort to steal the presidency. If they find a less obvious plan, I'm betting he'll be on board.

:applause:

HUGH!!!!1111

:rofl:

:toast:

One less thing to stress about this upcoming year...

2nd good article right in a row.

The rat bastards know they can't win in a fair election. They HAVE TO steal it.

And anyway, all it was able to get them was a GOP-lite Governor. Their religous right theocratic culture war crap goes over like a lead balloon, out here.

My advice to Illinois is, worry about them trying to steal your elections and electoral votes. Hopefully you can get a Secretary of State as good as Debra Bowen is out here.

darkness always comes to the light!

going thru..... Like others have said here, we really need to keep an eye on these people.

they've already got the election rigged in enough other states.

Really, we're not as dumb as some folks think we are.

and if Texas turns blue again in my lifetime, I will be surprised.

If you did, it would benefit US.

by creating more red districts.
Indirectly, that does affect the electoral votes.

Nevertheless, your redistricting deal was fucked, I agree.

Thank you for posting it.

delivering crummy spin for candidates. Good job!

Wouldn't be surprised if there were some embezzlement as well.

They're all such honorable chaps.

to some very good news!!

Good work, people. Constant vigilance.

Less than 24 hours after the SF Chronicle reported that the initiative had links to the Giuliani campaign. Oops!

.... even a little bit, worst. failure. ever.

:rofl:

:woohoo:

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The GOP cheaters can suck on it.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/27/BA72SG62P.DTL&tsp=1

San Francisco -- Days after a controversial organization began collecting voter signatures for a ballot measure to change California's winner-take-all primary, a founder of the GOP-backed group says its major players are resigning - and the group will fold - due to lack of funding and support.

"The levels of support just weren't there," said Marty Wilson, the Sacramento-based fundraiser, told the Chronicle in a telephone interview Thursday.

... Wilson said he has disassociated himself with the committee and he confirmed that Hiltachk, who has represented both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state GOP, resigned from the committee Wednesday, as has spokesman Kevin Eckery.

Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist, reacted with caution to the news, saying that Democrats, who have fought the effort aggressively from the start, intended to fully verify the committee's demise before they dropped protests and even possible legal action against the organization.

Somehow I suspect it will end up in a Bob Perry account somewhere. While it's good to see this scam has collapsed, I'd like to know whose bankrolling this game so that we avoid this from happening elsewhere.

They may try again-I'd keep watching until the deadline just to be sure that they didn't come back with new funding. Also, while that amount of money was too low for California-it may go for other efforts elsewhere. Keep an eye on all the big states or swing states for sneaky goings on.

I'm SOOOooo glad this has failed. Whew! However, now I worry about what they will try next. Maybe they found another way to steal California--they're not going to just give up and forget about it, you know?

These snakes must be watched!

:)

I was worried about this. (Still am.)

This is huge and you can thank the internet. Not too long ago a scheme like this would have been very hard for us to stop. But now, thanks to the internet, we can mobilize more dedicated people much, much quicker than they can and we can stop these things in their infancy. They have the internet too, but we have the numbers and now we're all connected. This is huge and shows how much we have progressed in a relatively little amount of time. It took the GOP 25-30 years to set up their machinery to carry out their schemes. We have developed the anti-dote via the internet in much, much less time. That's not to say we've won, or succeeded, but we now have the appropriate tools to do so.

Usually every year there's one prop (like the anti-abortion ones, or anti-gay marriage ones in other states) that the Rethugs use to try and turn out their base. Are there any other props that are being put on the ballot that would try and get Rethugs out to vote? I'm hoping these propsters focused all of their energy on this prop and with its failure have nothing on the ballot to get Rethugs to vote at all.

With the way the Republican party is being beaten around lately and a lot of their members are becoming disenfranchised with it, this could be a BIG stay at home election for Rethuglicans that could help us a lot in 2008! Hoping that is the case!