ELECTORAL COLLEGE HIJINKS….Remember that cute little piece of skullduggery Republicans have been backing that would split California’s electoral votes by congressional district instead of awarding them all to a single candidate? Long story short, California is reliably blue and a Democratic presidential candidate could normally expect to win all 55 of the state’s votes. Under the new proposal they’d probably split about 35-20. Democrats would instantly lose 20 electoral votes.
So clever. So sly. So dead:
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.
….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.”
The LA Times promises a full report on the debacle later tonight.
UPDATE: The full story is here:
The campaign received only one sizable donation — $175,000. That is less than one-tenth of the $2 million typically needed to gather sufficient signatures to qualify a measure for the California ballot.
The donation arrived on Sept. 11….But the individual donors to the organization were not known.
….”I am not willing to proceed under such circumstances,” Hiltachk said. “Therefore, I am resigning my role in this campaign.” Eckery added: “There’s no reason to be cute on campaign contributions. We had nothing to hide, and the public has every right to know.”
….Hurth did not return repeated calls seeking comment. His spokesman, Republican consultant Jonathan Wilcox, would not say who provided the $175,000. Wilcox said the group was planning to donate to other conservative causes around the country, including one in Utah to create school vouchers.
