Guest blogged by Jon Ponder of Pensito Review, with additional reporting by Brad Friedman
The Republican Party’s effort to unilaterally award itself 20 or so of California’s 55 Electoral College votes in next year’s Presidential Election has failed to reach its fundraising goals for a second time, according to the LA Times today…
Republican backers of the measure, which could have tilted the presidential contest toward the GOP nominee by changing how California awards electoral votes, conceded that they were unable to raise sufficient funds.
Dave Gilliard, the manager of the current campaign, expressed bewilderment over the fact that more GOP fatcats did not pour money into the campaign.
“I was surprised that more people that finance these types of efforts didn’t step forward…We had strong supporters and good supporters but didn’t come anywhere close to making the budget,” Gilliard told the Los Angeles Times.
Gilliard’s “surprise” is itself surprising. GOP big money donors know, just as certainly Gilliard must know, that ballot initiatives tend to fail if California voters suspect the proposition has a hidden agenda.
The stated intent of Gilliard’s initiative was to make the California system “fair.” In fact, the real purpose was to give about 40 percent of the state’s Electoral College votes to the 2008 Republican Presidential nominee.
In September, the measure had been pronounced dead by the LA Times after the campaign’s manager discovered that its sole donation had been laundered through a front group to disguise the donor’s identity as a campaign chair and fundraiser for GOP presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani. It was brought back to life in October after Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) kicked in $100,000 and the California Republican Party — who would more recently cry that they were cash poor — donated $150,000 towards the scheme.
In November, reports began to surface that the backers were using an initiative relating to kids with cancer as a cover to gather signatures in what appears to have been a fraudulent attempt to gain signatures for the measure. And The BRAD BLOG recently offered an exclusive interview with Anthony F. Andrade Jr., the man who originally proposed the scheme to split California’s electoral votes. Andrade’s comments about the initiative, and all manner of things — including labeling homosexuals as “loony” and Bill and Hillary Clinton as “pricks” and “assholes” — were colorful, to say the least.
But like Jason in a bad Friday the Thirteenth movie the measure may not be fully dead yet. The LA Times also reports today that proponents of the scheme “were holding out hope that the measure could appear on the November ballot with the presidential contest. But [Gilliard] said that was a dicey scenario: Even if it is on that ballot and wins voter approval, it might not affect the 2008 election.”
A video report from CBS News over the weekend, showing apparent efforts by supporters to fraudulently receive signatures for the measure, follows below…
Yeah Jon, Brad, 99 ,all
Was this another look over here while we fuk you over there thing ?
I’ve been thinking this for a while now.
Is there something else going on ?
I don’t know, Flo. I don’t think there’s anything but crime and corruption going on in politics anymore. Every single thing that comes up is either a lie or a trick, some slick incarnation of spin. Candidates get popular by what they only say, even when they said something completely different someplace else. The truth, honesty and integrity are completely invisible no matter which way you turn. So. Beats me.
… Jon Pondered…
“But like Jason in a bad Friday the Thirteenth movie…”
?
Query… was there ever a good Friday the
Thirteenth movie?
Suggestion from an earlier era:
Caliripoff: The Immortal Initiative!
(A predecessor to Bava’s seminal work “Planet of the Neocons”)
Hey Jon,
Just grab as much power as you can however you can and then a a paint can, red or blue, depending on the circumstances, and shit baby you got what it takes … to convince amurka.
The remainder of the world requires more.
“dead” … it is just a state of mind …
This is an important ploy to steal the next national election. I hope the national Democratic party finds some Democrat states to halt the initiative based on equal treatment; another countermeasure should be opening parallel campaigns in twenty states to convert those electors to the same districtwise assignment the Republicans are trying to do to CA. If a reader would like to read one of the best thinkers about electoral law writing about a 2008 showdown with Scalia and company deciding whether a court action initiated by CA to reverse the initiative, read this* draft law journal article by Loyola’s R.Hasen; the opening few pages paint the strategy perfectly. This is 2000 Bush v Gore deja vu. There is time to counter it and neutralize it, but it will be work to accomplish. The Supreme Court has shown it is all to ready to get political in gifting the Republican Party with the white house.
_____
*The Hassen article is there: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1065421
“The Price of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilence”
We will continue to be on the sharp lookout for more underhanded GOP tricks in their fraudulent attempts to steal the white house in 2008!
“freedom is just another word for nuthin left ta loose”
Janis J
“freedom is that feelin Iraqis have when lookin down the phallic business end of an oily barrel of neoCon luv”
KKKarl Rover
“californication is dreamin of a red planet”
Darrel Issa
That’s right! We’ve got to keep California True Blue so that the Democratic Party can put a stop to Bush and Company…
… not.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/07/AR2007120702550.html?hpid=topnews
Caving again.
But don’t worry… that means that it’s getting closer to the time for certain Dem Election Deformers to trot out a variety of backdoors for federalized control of elections for our entertainment!
There’s only the FISA capitulation left on the agenda beforehand, I believe?
The poor bastards. Don’t they realize that being in power is the worst thing in the world for them?
“I was surprised that more people that finance these types of efforts didn’t step forward…We had strong supporters and good supporters but didn’t come anywhere close to making the budget,” Gilliard told the Los Angeles Times.
Dave, I heard they’re having one in Texas, to split up Texas electoral votes and make it, as you say, “more fair”, so GET YOUR ASS DOWN THERE!
Oh! I forgot! You only want blue states to be more fair! Sorry!