Team Giuliani backs California scheme — and breaks election law?
Posted October 27th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
By now, you’ve probably all heard about the Republican electoral-vote scheme in California. If you’re just joining us, it’s quite a clever little scam: the state GOP, far-right activists, and Swiftboat financiers, under the guise of “fairness,” want to split California’s 55 electoral votes by congressional district, as opposed to the current winner-take-all system. There’s no real mystery behind the effort — the goal is to deny Dems about 20 fairly reliable electoral votes, making it extremely difficult for the party to win a presidential election.
As of a month ago, the initiative was in deep trouble, and apparently dead. Its two key organizers quit; the campaign was out of money; and proponents were nowhere near close to collecting the necessary number of signatures to get the scheme on the state ballot. “‘Shambles’ is the wrong word,” said strategist Marty Wilson, who curtailed his fundraising efforts weeks ago. “The campaign never got off the ground.”
This week, the measure was poised to rear its ugly head again, with new backers anxious to relaunch.
And who are these new players? The old financiers were Swiftboaters; new ones are part of Team Giuliani.
We have noted before that one of the main bankrollers for Giuliani’s presidential campaign, Paul Singer, heavily financed the initial push to get on the state’s ballot an initiative that could help a Republican win the White House next year. Also, Anne Dunsmore, who until September was Giuliani’s deputy campaign manager in charge for fundraising, recently took over money chores for the ballot measure.
Friday, the Giuliani link to the initiative grew stronger. A key backer of the measure to alter California’s winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes sent an e-mail urging Giuliani backers to sign petitions to place it on the ballot.
The missive, obtained by The Times’ Dan Morain, is addressed, “Hello Fellow Rudy Supporter!” Its author, Tony Andrade, is a Republican activist who helped draft the electoral college initiative. Previously, he was among those who helped place the ultimately successful recall of Gov. Gray Davis on the ballot in 2003.
As it turns out, this might be a violation of federal election law.
more...
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13389.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
