The Los Angeles Times reports today that a California ballot initiative that would allow 53 of the state’s 55 electoral votes to be awarded to the winning candidate in each of the state’s congressional districts is “a shambles,” following the resignation of the election law attorney who was leading the fight for the initiative. Had the plan been in effect for the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry’s electoral vote victory in the state would have been reduced from 55-0 to 33-22.
Despite California’s reputation as a blue state — the Democratic standard bearer has won the state in each of the last four presidential elections — the initiative had a solid lead in recent polls. But the backers of the proposed “Presidential Reform Act” had had little success in raising money and faced looming deadlines for collecting the signatures to get the proposal on the June 2008 ballot.
The Times said that “hundreds of thousands of signatures were needed before the end of November,” but Congressional Quarterly’s CQpolitics.com reported that 433,971 signatures had to be collected by February 3, 2008. To get the necessary signatures, the initiative’s backers had to raise at least $1 million, and probably more. So far, however, the only sizable donation to the committee backing the initiative was $175,000, and it came from a small town in Missouri.
All I have to say is, What’s wrong with the California Republican party? They can’t find somebody to pony up a million bucks to win a presidential race? They have to go to Missouri to get a paltry $175,000? Haven’t you guys ever heard of Texas? Listen, you morons, we’ve got Republican donors here who shell out three times that much to win one lousy state representative race.
You guys ever hear of the Swift Boat Vets? We’ve got Bob Perry, the guy who bankrolled that. We’ve got James Leininger, who’ll squander $3 million just to keep Tom Craddick happy. We’ve got Bill Hammond, who brags about using corporate money to beat Ds. And you guys are cutting and running because the Ds started asking questions about pocket change money from Missouri? No wonder the Ds are killing you out there.
