Just opened my issue of the New Yorker this week and was stunned at what I saw: California might change how it apportions electoral votes to make it "proportional." In other words, in the fall 2008 presidential election, 20+ electoral votes from California might go to the GOP.
Now, I know many of us are giddy at the prospect of states like North Carolina moving away from a winner-take-all system, but personally, I believe either the whole country does this, or no state does.
But the urgent situation is California - the threat is real, California Initiative No. 07-0032 may very well be on the ballot in June and voters NEED to be educated as to what it would mean. Much more below:
Here's the essence of what happened:
Two weeks ago, one of the most important Republican lawyers in Sacramento quietly filed a ballot initiative that would end the practice of granting all fifty-five of California’s electoral votes to the statewide winner. Instead, it would award two of them to the statewide winner and the rest, one by one, to the winner in each congressional district. Nineteen of the fifty-three districts are represented by Republicans, but Bush carried twenty-two districts in 2004. The bottom line is that the initiative, if passed, would spot the Republican ticket something in the neighborhood of twenty electoral votes—votes that it wouldn’t get under the rules prevailing in every other sizable state in the Union.
Now, here's what's going to happen. Traditionally, the CA primary takes place on June 3rd. But as we all know, the presidential primary was moved up to Feb 5th. Which means that June 3rd will be a very low-turnout affair. Which is a scary thought, because that's how some of these odious initiatives get passed:
Initiative No. 07-0032—the Presidential Election Reform Act—is different. It’s serious. Its backers have access to serious money. And it could pass.
and:
California Initiative No. 07-0032 is an audacious power play packaged as a step forward for democratic fairness. It’s the lotusland equivalent of Tom DeLay’s 2003 midterm redistricting in Texas, except with a sweeter smell, a better disguise, and larger stakes. And the only way Californians will reject it is if they have a chance to think about it first.
So, basically, what we need to do is educate and mobilize. I live in New York, so this is a call across the country to my friends in California. In this low-turnout affair, we need to target the blue-est districts in the state and get our liberal friends out to the polls to reject this initiative.
It's early now, but this issue needs to be monitored very closely, or else we'll be spotting the GOP the equivalent of another Ohio. Now, I'm confident we can win in 2008 - but not THAT confident. Let's keep this issue alive and make sure that the initiative fails miserably.
And then, let's tackle nation-wide, Federal electoral reform.