{"id":14503,"date":"2008-02-07T13:50:17","date_gmt":"2008-02-07T18:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14503.html"},"modified":"2008-02-07T13:50:17","modified_gmt":"2008-02-07T18:50:17","slug":"gop-electoral-scheme-dies-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/gop-electoral-scheme-dies-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP electoral scheme dies in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a while, the Republican electoral-vote scheme in California seemed like a fairly serious effort, and certainly something to keep an eye on. Fortunately, at least for now, it’s dead.<\/p>\n

If you’re just joining us, it was quite a clever little scam: the state GOP, far-right activists, and Swiftboat financiers, under the guise of “fairness,” wanted to split California’s 55 electoral votes by congressional district, as opposed to the current winner-take-all system. There’s no real mystery behind the effort — the goal is to deny Dems about 20 fairly reliable electoral votes, making it difficult for the party to win a presidential election.<\/p>\n

As of last fall, the initiative was in deep trouble<\/a>. Its two key organizers had quit; the campaign was out of money; and proponents were nowhere near close to collecting the necessary number of signatures to get the scheme on the state ballot.<\/p>\n

But before we could move on to other matter, some members of Rudy Giuliani’s team intervened, relaunched the effort<\/a>, and eyed the November ballot.<\/p>\n

I’m pleased to note that the whole effort, sometimes called “California Counts,” was a flop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Proponents of a controversial proposed ballot measure that would have reallocated California’s electoral college votes by congressional district — instead of the current winner-take-all system — have abandoned their effort.<\/p>\n

“It’s not going to make the ballot this year,” said David Gilliard, a Republican political strategist organizing the campaign. “The money never materialized to put it on the ballot.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m tempted to say, “Nice try,” but the truth is, the whole effort was too stupid for praise.
\n
\nOrganizers needed more than 400,000 valid signatures by Feb. 4. That didn’t happen, though we do not yet know how far short they came.<\/p>\n

So, it’s finished? For now, yes, but it may yet raise its ugly head again.<\/p>\n

“I think in a year in which the presidential race is not going on, it may be easier to get the donors interested in it,” said Gilliard, whose campaign raised almost $1.4 million in 2007.<\/p>\n

Gilliard said there were no plans to submit another measure in the future, though he did not rule out the possibility.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given the extent to which this would hurt Democratic presidential hopes, and excitement (albeit brief) the idea generated in Republican circles last year, I’d be surprised if it didn’t<\/i> make a comeback at some point soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a while, the Republican electoral-vote scheme in California seemed like a fairly serious effort, and certainly something to keep an eye on. Fortunately, at least for now, it’s dead. If you’re just joining us, it was quite a clever little scam: the state GOP, far-right activists, and Swiftboat financiers, under the guise of “fairness,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}