8/7/2007 MICHAEL R. BLOOD
LOS ANGELES (AP) A Republican-backed ballot proposal could split left-leaning California between the Democratic and GOP nominees, tilting the 2008 presidential election in favor of the Republicans.
California awards its cache of 55 electoral votes to the statewide winner in presidential elections - the largest single prize in the nation. But a prominent Republican lawyer wants to put a proposal on the ballot that would award the statewide winner only two electoral votes.
The rest would be distributed to the winning candidate in each of the state's congressional districts. In effect, that would create 53 races, each with one electoral vote up for grabs.
California has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections. But the change - if it qualifies for one of two primary ballots next year and is approved by voters - would mean that a Republican would be positioned the following November to snatch 20 or more electoral votes in GOP-leaning districts.
That's a number equal to winning Ohio.
The so-called Presidential Election Reform Act is being pushed by Thomas Hiltachk, a lawyer in a Sacramento firm that represents the California Republican Party and has worked with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He did not return phone messages left Monday at his office.
A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman said the governor is not involved with the proposed initiative, and party officials said they have no connection to it.
Democratic consultant Chris Lehane called the plan "an effort to rig the system in order to fix the election."
"If this change is made, it will virtually guarantee that a Republican wins the White House in 2008," Lehane said in an e-mail.
Nineteen of the state's 53 congressional districts are represented by Republicans. President Bush carried 22 districts in 2004, while losing the statewide vote by double digits.
Only Maine and Nebraska allocate electoral votes by congressional district.
A draft of the proposed initiative says nixing the winner-take-all system would give presidential candidates "an incentive to campaign in California. ... Many of the geographic areas of the state would be as important to a candidate's chance for victory as many of the smaller states."
"We'll take a serious look at it, once it qualifies for the ballot," state Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring said.
If it does qualify, Democrats probably would have to spend millions of dollars to defeat it, which could drain money from other races. And there are expected to be additional ballot proposals on abortion and other social issues that could drive up GOP turnout.
The state already moved its presidential primary to Feb. 5 in an attempt to increase its clout in national politics.
In that primary, Republicans will award delegates only to the top vote-getter in each congressional district. A Democrat can qualify for a delegate by winning at least 15 percent of the vote in a district.
From California Republican Blog, Ron Nehring, CRP Chairman
8/2/07
Democrats Support Electoral College Reform
That's right.
Democrats are on record in support of an initiative to allocate the state's Electoral College votes by Congressional District...in Colorado.
It seems that in Republican-leaning Colorado, it's fundramentally unfair for Denver to determine where Electoral College votes from Colorado Springs go...but when the idea is mentioned in California, it must be part of some right-wing conspiracy. Colorado Democrats strongly advocated for such an initiative just last year: Amendment 36.
One news story put it this way:
Many of the biggest supporters of Amendment 36 have been Democrats, who began working to get the proposal on the ballot back when it looked as though their traditionally Republican state would again vote decisively for President Bush.
The liberals who are busy worrying over this idea need to check with their colleagues in Colorado, Florida, and other Republican-leaning states who have advocated for allocating Electoral College votes by district, people like Democrat State Senator Ron Tupa of Colorado, who said: "I support Amendment 36 based on a higher principle...I'm not looking at the Electoral College math and saying this amendment will somehow or other hurt the Democratic Party. I take my partisan hat off when I work on this issue."
The reality is that most process-related reforms (redistricting, electoral college, primary voting rules, etc.) are instantly evaluated not on the merits, but in terms of who benefits, and who doesn't, as a result. The principle involved is often lost.
The CRP routinely evaluates all statewide initiatives, once they qualify for the ballot. If and when this initiative clears that hurdle, we'll take a hard look at it.
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