Last dog could be hung in Congress? Or maybe Electoral College?
Agitators probe for defectors among electors
By Scott Martelle/Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 7, 2000
Web posted at: 11:59 a.m. EST (1659 GMT)
(Los Angeles Times) -- As the two major
parties near the end of their vicious war for the
White House, Democratic activists and
would-be political reformers are quietly pressing Republican electors to do the
unthinkable: Vote for Democrat Al Gore.
Less a movement than a series of individual and overlapping acts, the agitators
seek to split away two or three votes from among George W. Bush's anticipated
271 Republican electors when the all-important electoral college convenes Dec.
18.
If three Bush electors defect and vote for Gore, then the Democrats would win
the White House regardless of the current court battles. If two defect, the
election would be sent to the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.
While few expect the agitators to succeed in creating what are known as
"faithless electors," their efforts add yet another odd twist to an election that has
already set new standards for bizarreness.
The biggest hurdle is the nature of the electors themselves--most are selected as
a payoff for years of party loyalty. And Gore himself has rebuffed the efforts.
"We're very proud to have earned the popular vote support during this election,
but we are not seeking nor in anyway trying to get electors to switch over,"
Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said Tuesday.
Lehane, however, acknowledged that, in the unlikely event the effort is
successful, Gore would have little choice but to accept the presidency, despite
earlier comments by the vice president that he would reject the votes.
"They can vote for whomever they choose, and if Gore gets 270 votes in the
electoral college he's the president," said Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor at the
USC Law School. "He has no authority to concede the election to Bush in a legal
sense, though if he does by announcement then it's less likely that the electors
would [flip]."
Those involved in the effort range from two Claremont McKenna College seniors
dismayed by the prospect of seating a president who placed second in the
popular vote, to a New Hampshire lab technician who urged his state's four
electors to reject tradition for the public will.
"I think there is corruption, and the election was unfair in Florida," said Thomas
Richard, a Concord, N.H., Gore supporter. "Electors have some discretion in
who they vote for in New Hampshire. They're not bound by state law to vote for
the elector that they're pledged to. So they ought to use their discretion,
especially when the election was so close and the popular vote was greater for
Gore."
In Pennsylvania, T.J. Rooney, a state representative from the Lehigh Valley and a
Democratic elector, has undertaken his own campaign to buttonhole four or five
Republican electors he knows in other states to entice them to vote for Gore.
"They listen to what I have to say," Rooney said. "Perhaps they're just listening
out of kindness or collegiality, but I think there's a strong case to be made. . . . I
am firmly of the opinion that if every vote was counted in Florida, [Gore] will
have earned the 25 electors."
David Enrich is one of the Claremont McKenna students behind the Citizens for
True Democracy Web site at claremontmckenna.com
that urges people to lobby Republican electors to vote for Gore. The Web site
has received more than 54,200 visits since it was posted two days after the
election.
Enrich said he and roommate Matt Grossmann of Columbia, Mo., are targeting
the process, not the candidates, and would have sought Gore defectors had the
circumstances been reversed.
"This is an effort on our part to draw attention to a system that we think is
grossly unfair and anti-democratic and in great need of reform," said Enrich, 21,
of Boston. "We think this is kind of a golden opportunity to reform it."
But Republicans see something more nefarious going on--an attempt by
Democrats to circumvent the process.
"It is in keeping with some of the usual tactics we've seen by the Democrats
since the election," said Bush spokesman Ray Sullivan. "Ultimately, we believe
that Republican electors across the country are and will continue to be
committed to Gov. Bush and do not believe that they will be persuaded to turn
their backs on their party or on our nominee."
While some Republican electors have been swamped with e-mails, others said
they're aware of the campaign but have not been contacted. Still others said they
have heard from more fellow Republicans urging them to stand firm than from
people encouraging them to flip.
One of the more overt efforts began with Bob Beckel, a longtime Democratic
analyst and chairman of Walter F. Mondale's 1984 White House campaign.
Beckel announced in the days after the November election that he was amassing
information on Republican electors to try to find ways to persuade them to shift
allegiances.
Beckel has since said he meant only to gather information on how to contact the
electors. But his initial announcement unleashed a storm of protests by Bush
supporters. Repeated attempts to reach Beckel for comment were unsuccessful.
For all their efforts, the agitators face a considerable tide of history. There has
been only a handful of faithless electors going back almost 200 years, and none
affected an election's outcome.
Marcia Nippert, chairwoman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Florida's Sarasota
County, has no intention of becoming a footnote to electoral college history.
"My job is to reflect the vote of Florida, and that's for George W. Bush. I would
be remiss if I didn't represent my state," Nippert said. "It's a little bit insulting. I
consider that I'm doing the right and appropriate thing by voting for George W.
Bush."
John McCutcheon of Caldwell, W. Va., is one of the few electors whose e-mail
address is posted in the Citizens for True Democracy Web site. He is receiving
about two dozen messages a day urging him to vote for Gore.
But he said he's getting twice that amount from fellow Republicans.
"The more inspiring ones are from folks who say, 'Look, I hear you're getting
beat up. Stick to your guns,' " said McCutcheon, a political consultant and
executive director of the Bush campaign in West Virginia.
McCutcheon, like most of the Republican electors, is a veteran of campaigns and
said he takes the contacts in stride, deleting most of them as he would junk
e-mail.
"You could set me on fire and I wouldn't change my mind," he said.
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