Meanwhile out in California...
While pundits have been commenting on "The Horse Race" - Who is winning? Who is losing? What about Hilary's jacket? Is Obama black enough? Will Fred run? The list is unfortunately endless. Meanwhile out in California...
Very quietly a prominent lawyer in Sacramento applied to have an initiative placed on next year's ballot that, if passed, will allocate electoral votes by congressional district, rather than the current "winner take all" situation.
What would this mean in next year's presidential election? Most likely it would mean a Republican victory in a close national election. Why? Because as Hendrik Hertzberg writes in his piece, Votescam, in The New Yorker Magazine that this would give the minority party (in this case the Republicans) "an unearned, Ohio-size gift of electoral votes."
The Orwellian title for this initiative is the Presidential Election Reform Act, and it is sponsored by "Californians for Equal Representation". Innocuous as the name of the organization sounds, it is an eerily familiar ruse - there is no such organization. The address on the letterhead is the same as the law firm that represents the California Republican Party.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, because the primary date has been moved up to early February, the usual election day in June will probably be little noted and poorly attended with few ballots cast. This stealth approach would clearly advantage the minority party.
Hertzberg concludes thusly:
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.