Electoral Reform California Initiative Could Split California Presidential Votes Part III – Opposition Forms

The Electoral Reform California Website is here.

Flap receives this e-mail today:

Hi all—

FYI, we’re working on the campaign to oppose the likely Republican-funded initiative scheme that would radically change the way California awards electoral votes, moving away from the “winner-take-all” approach (that currently means 55 electoral votes for the Democratic nominee) and towards an allocation based on Congressional district (which could throw as many as 20 electoral votes to the Republican nominee) — potentially throwing the entire presidential election to the Republicans.

Our placeholder site just launched today. Any support you can provide for this effort would really be appreciated:

http://www.FairElectionReform.com

The Republicans are beginning to raise money to try to qualify the initiative for the June ballot. If it passes, it would go into effect for 2008. We’ve got quite a bit of work to do to fight back against what many voters, at first blush, may think is a “fair” solution — because this concept taps into a lot of disenchantment that people feel about the electoral college as a whole.

We can’t let the Republicans get away with this pure, partisan power grab – and instead, we need to be reforming the system nationwide in a fair, comprehensive way (like moving to a national popular vote), rather than this kind of piecemeal approach that disproportionately swings electoral votes to one party or another.

Senator Boxer blogged about this at Huffington Post today:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-barbara-boxer/stop-the-gop-electoral-co_b_60728.html

Rick Jacobs, Todd Beeton, and the folks at the Courage Campaign are going to be doing a ton of online advocacy around this, so be sure to check them out too:

http://www.couragecampaign.org

Thanks for your help on this.

Flap wonders how much each party will contribute to this initiative? Or their surrogates?

Flap receives this e-mail about the California lefty blogosphere actively opposing the initiative:

Many folks have already been writing and blogging about this, including Steven Maviglio over at the California Majority Report, Dave Dayen at Calitics, Bill Cavala at California Progress Report, and plenty of others. Links to their great pieces here:

http://camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&aid=2179&ptid=9

http://camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&aid=2128&ptid=9

http://www.calitics.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3482

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/07/changing_the_ru.html

I’m sure I’ve missed others, and apologies in advance for that. Thanks all!

The fight for California’s Electoral College votes in Presidential Race 2008 has just begun.

The initiative is here.

Stay tuned……….

Graphic Courtesy of California Majority Report

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Electoral Reform California Initiative Could Split California Presidential Votes Part II

Electoral Reform California Initiative Could Split California Presidential Votes

North Carolina Ready to Change Electoral College Presidential Selection Rules for 2008

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