[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

op-ed last week in Slate, I chronicled how the text of the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent render "patently unconstitutional" a ploy by California Republicans to use a ballot initiative to change the method of appointing the state’s 55 electors. The case is strong, and I appear to have convinced many readers in California and elsewhere. Perhaps, in a way, I was too convincing.

Some Californians appear to have concluded from my piece that defeating the Presidential Election Reform Act ("the Act") can safely be left to the Courts. One blogger has even argued that opponents of the initiative should not "spend a dime" opposing the measure and should instead simply challenge the measure in court. That’s a really bad idea. 

First and foremost, no one in this country should want the courts decide another presidential election. While I think the Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore would actually hem the Court’s conservatives in here, Democrats, in particular, have reason to be leery of any strategy that could leave the outcome of the 2008 election in the hands of the U.S Supreme Court -- more conservative now than it was in 2000.

by Mark Leno [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

This is one straight out of Karl Rove's political playbook. A group of Republican political operatives and their powerful special interests have hatched a desperate scheme to rig California's electoral process to their advantage. They're proposing a statewide ballot initiative to change how California casts its electoral votes for President. They've cleverly labeled it the "Presidential Election Reform Act," which would sound credible if it weren't so cynical.

But make no mistake, this wolf-in-sheep's-clothing has nothing to do with reform or protecting voters' interests or preserving the integrity of our Constitution. It's an audacious power grab by the GOP as it spirals into irrelevance leading up to the 2008 Presidential race.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Mark Leno
Member, California State Assembly

This is one straight out of Karl Rove's political playbook. A group of Republican political operatives and their powerful special interests have hatched a desperate scheme to rig California's electoral process to their advantage. They're proposing a statewide ballot initiative to change how California casts its electoral votes for President. They've cleverly labeled it the "Presidential Election Reform Act," which would sound credible if it weren't so cynical.

But make no mistake, this wolf-in-sheep's-clothing has nothing to do with reform or protecting voters' interests or preserving the integrity of our Constitution. It's an audacious power grab by the GOP as it spirals into irrelevance leading up to the 2008 Presidential race.

The Republican Party is in complete disarray. Wracked by scandal and corruption, the GOP has apparently concluded that it has little chance of appealing to voters on the merits. President Bush's poll numbers are melting faster than an Alaskan glacier and a recent nationwide poll showed that two-thirds of young voters surveyed believe that Democrats do a better job than Republicans of representing their interests.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

On Thursday, California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres announced the launch of an exciting program called Fraud Busters to combat misinformation being spread by proponents of a misleading initiative effort ("The Presidential Election Reform Act") which would make California the only large state in the union to award its electoral votes by Congressional District, instead of by statewide popular vote. 
 
"We want activists around the state to help us stop the Republicans from stealing the White House and stealing California's electoral votes," said Torres. "We are asking our activists to be the California Democratic Party's frontline team and help us stop the Republicans from spreading their lies around the state."
 
In order to ensure that Republicans hold the White House next year, well-connected GOP operatives are attempting to put an initiative on California's June 2008 ballot that, if passed, would all but guarantee the Republican nominee could steal 22 electoral votes from California in the November 2008 presidential election.
 
The California Democratic Party has set up a website, www.cadem.org/fraudbusters with tools for Democratic activists across California to get the word out and gather signatures from others who will pledge to help us stop the Republicans' scam.
 

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Oh those rabble rousers at the Courage Campaign. What will they come up with next?

In an effort to find Republicans willing to go on the record against the GOP electoral college power grab, they've organized a grassroots bottom-up effort encouraging Rep. David Dreier and his live-in Chief of Staff Brad Smith to "come out against dirty tricks." Says the Campaign:

"As chairman of California's Republican Congressional Delegation, Representative David Dreier owes it to the voters to publicly announce his position on the "Presidential Election Reform Act" which is gathering signatures to be placed on the June ballot in California.

This is a craven right-wing power grab by Republican operatives to hijack the presidency on June 3, 2008. A scathing editorial by the New York Times called this ballot initiative an "elaborate dirty trick" designed by a "shadowy group" to "do serious damage to our democracy."

The measure, if passed, would dictate that California divide up its electoral college votes by congressional district -- resulting in the Republican theft of at least 20 electoral votes in November's general election, the equivalent of Ohio.

read more »

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

You didn't think we would drop all of those initiatives off at his office and not follow up with the guy did you?

This is not your average advocacy campaign, where petitions go undelivered and people don't actually follow through on your promises.  This is a new style campaign and we are continuing to pressure Arnold about the dirty tricks initiative.  Below the fold is the fax we sent to him today and copied all of the press on.

If you would like to donate to my ActBlue page to pay off the $616.19 in Kinkos bills and reward blogactivism you can do so here.

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The similarities between the 2003 recall and the current electoral vote swindle are quite stark (and not only because it is the same people using the same language about a right-wing power grab in an election where nobody knows the turnout). So let's compare the benchmark testing by Field Poll in each race, among all registered voters.

Recall:
46% Yes
43% No

PERA:
47% Yes
35% No

Keep in the recall passed with 55.4% of the vote. Want some more numbers?