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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (352508)	9/28/2007 10:38:13 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1578436

Tough break Shorty... Bid to change Calif. vote rules stalls By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 28, 5:55 AM ET Several influential Republicans resigned abruptly from a political committee established to change the way California awards its electoral votes in presidential elections, a proposal Democrats claim would rig the 2008 race. The shake-up dealt a devastating blow to the attempt to change the rules. The committee was already struggling because of poor fundraising, and even Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had said he was dubious about the idea of changing the rules. "Sometimes it just doesn't work out," said Kevin Eckery, a spokesman for Californians for Equal Representation who resigned Thursday. "The money hasn't been coming in the way it needs to come in." California awards its 55 electoral votes to the statewide winner in presidential elections, the largest single prize in the nation. But a prominent Republican lawyer, Thomas Hiltachk, wanted to put a proposal on the ballot that would award the statewide winner only two electoral votes, with the rest allocated according to results in each congressional district. California has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections. The change — if it qualified for the June primary ballot and was approved by voters — would have positioned a Republican candidate the following November to win 20 or more electoral votes in GOP-leaning districts. Supporters described the proposal as a blueprint for fairness in presidential contests, but Democrats argued that it could have tilted the election in favor of the GOP candidate. Hiltachk and his law firm resigned from Californians for Equal Representation, the committee formed to raise money to place the plan on the ballot in June. Another consultant with ties to Schwarzenegger also pulled out. It's estimated that it could take $1 million to $2 million to gather the signatures needed to place an initiative on the ballot. The committee had raised only a small fraction of that. Leading Democrats united with Hollywood producer Stephen Bing and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer in critizing the proposal. A committee formed to oppose the plan had been running ads depicting the proposal as a power grab for the GOP. Nineteen of the state's 53 congressional districts are represented by Republicans. President Bush carried 22 districts in 2004, while losing the statewide vote by double digits. It takes 270 of 538 electoral votes to win the White House. Only Maine and Nebraska currently allocate their electoral votes by congressional district.

To: longnshort who wrote (352508)	9/28/2007 3:33:23 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578436

yeah you dems will protect us. Gov. Kaine is a Dem. He took care of the problem. What more could you possibly want. Oh wait, you would have liked that Omeish got tazed at a minimum, and preferably executed with a shot to the head. Sorry Dems don't work that way: "RICHMOND, Va. - A member of the state's Commission of Immigration resigned Thursday, a few hours after Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was told about online videos showing the appointee condemning Israel and advocating "the jihad way." Kaine learned of the videos from a caller to his live monthly radio program and accepted the resignation of Dr. Esam S. Omeish about three hours later."