Red Alert: Efforts underway to stymie GOP Electoral College grab

But, since we're Democrats, it ain't that simple.

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By now you all know about the egregious effort GOP operatives are making to steal the 2008 election by forcing California to allocate its 55 Electoral College votes according to which candidate wins individual congressional districts rather than by the current "winner-take-all" system. (See my post, below, and click on The New Yorker and NY Times links.)

And you are undoubtedly eager to know what we in California, with the help and support of Democrats across the country, are doing to overcome this pernicious bit of ballot legerdemain that could have the effect of installing another Republican administration, no matter what the country wants.

I wish I could tell you I knew, with clarity and certainty, that we are developing the very best ways to fight back. But since we're Democrats there's a certain amount of overlap, confusion and disagreement. I've spent the last week or so trying to pick apart the threads.

[Update: August 31] —The Red Alert box in the right sidebar links to a page (which will be regularly updated) with lists of blog posts, press reports, and lots of other information on the issue...including links to the initiatives...and ACTION ITEMS. Please go there now and sign the Courage Campaign pledge.

You can also sign another petition at the Fair Election Reform website. That petition is meant to, um, encourage the Democratic presidential candidates to speak out against the GOP initiative. (So far Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd and John Edwards have done so.)

The Courage Campaign folks, and the posters at Calitics, are my people — the 'Netroots. The 'Netroots with a proven track record of mobilizing the grassroots. I will be happy to follow where they lead. Well, almost. CC is promoting yet another sign-up, this one to prod Gov. Schwarzenegger to do the right thing and decry the GOP initiative. I think it's unnecessarily snide — and will perhaps serve to turn him off — but if you choose to send him the e-mail, you can edit the suggested text, and I hope you will. My own version is at the end of this post.

On the face of it (but please note the caveat, below), it would make great sense for the 'Netroots and the grassroots to get solidly behind the Fair Election Reform people, who have sent up to the Secretary of State two ballot initiatives to counter the GOP initiative. (I've carefully read the text of both, and there's some coy procedural reason there are two versions instead of one. More about this another time if it proves germane.)

The text of those initiatives closely matches the principles put forward in the National Popular Vote legislation which was passed last year by both houses of the California legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. It has once again passed in the California Senate. (And has been passed and signed into law in Maryland.) For those of us who crave a system far more fair than the Electoral College can possibly be, whatever the tweaks, the notion of electing a President and Vice-President by direct popular vote is seductive — but the National Popular Vote plan, as written, presents its own problems.)

Well, why would we not be thrilled with those counter-initiatives? My own view is that it would have been far preferable NOT to put a competing initiative on the ballot, but to put all our energies into mobilizing the Democratic grassroots to fight the GOP initiative by voting it down come June. And then to continue promoting the National Popular Vote idea — as flawed as it is — through the legislative process.

We (yes, the 'Netroots, and our "boots-on-the ground" cohort, the grassroots) will have to explain why and how to vote Yes on one, No on the other, thus muddying the waters and sowing confusion. And if, to make things simpler, we say, "Vote No on both," and both are defeated, the National Popular Vote legislation will stall indefinitely — it will be seen as something the voters didn't want. Not good.

Ah well. We'll be clever, innovative, and use every tool at our disposal. And we must prevail — otherwise, the GOP will have won what is a dreadful game of Cows & Cemeteries, with the most dire of consequences.

Our broken nation cannot bear another Republican administration — I doubt we would survive it.

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My E-mail to the governor:

Dear Gov. Schwarzenegger,

On August 23, 2007 you were asked about the so-called "Presidential Election Reform Act" -- the initiative your former lawyers are attempting to place on the June 3, 2008 ballot in California.

This unprecedented partisan power-grab would dictate a re-allocation of about twenty of California's 55 Electoral College votes, thus handing the White House to a Republican no matter whom the country chooses in November.

You said: "I haven't looked at the language and I'm not saying I'm against it or I'm for it or anything."

But you have said, "In principle, I don't like to change the rules in the middle of the game." Please read the initiative closely and go behind the Rovian language the proponents are using. Be true to your words -- and your principles -- and condemn this pernicious effort to stack the electoral deck.

Please stand up, Governor. You will make us proud of you for doing the right thing for California and the country.

Sincerely,