As top Pennsylvania Republicans
openly explore splitting their state's electoral votes by congressional district in order to benefit Republican candidates for president, Nebraska Republicans are
working to move to a winner-take-all distribution of their state's electoral votes in order to benefit Republican candidates for president:
The Nebraska Republican Party is showing a startling new level of desperation in its efforts to force the Nebraska Legislature to change the state's electoral college vote during the 2012 legislative session. At the September meeting of its State Central Committee, a resolution is being proposed that would block any support for State Senators who vote against changing the casting of Nebraska's electoral college votes to "winner-take-all."
New Nebraska Network has the text of the resolution. It's harsh:
Be it resolved that the Nebraska Republican Party will not support in any manner, financial or otherwise, any state senator who opposes the return of the state to the "winner-takes-all" electoral vote plan either by failing to vote for such in committee or on the floor of the legislature.
Further, the resolution is not merely a symbolic gesture. As New Nebraska Network goes on to explain, it could well result in Nebraska moving to a winner-take-all system:
Earlier this year, the "winner-take-all" bill failed to advance from the Legislature's Government, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee after its members deadlocked on a 4-4 vote. This resolution is clearly a message to State Senator Paul Schumacher of Columbus - the lone Republican on that committee to oppose the legislation. Schumacher is also a member of the NEGOP's State Central Committee. That could certainly add an element of drama to their next meeting.
While the policies Republicans are pursuing in Pennsylvania and Nebraska are the exact opposite, there is a common thread: Republicans are looking to change election rules for the purpose of helping Republicans. While Pennsylvania has given all of its electoral votes to Democratic candidates since 1992, in 2008 Barack Obama was able to win one of Nebraska's five electoral votes because it uses the district-based system Pennsylvania Republicans are looking to adopt.
Given the contradictory policies and harsh intra-party discipline Republicans are employing in order to win a dozen more electoral votes, one wonders why all Republican-controlled state governments don't just award their state's electoral votes to Rick Perry right now. Since it is constitutional for state governments to award electoral votes without an election, it remains unclear what those socialist-coddling RINOs are waiting for.