FOX News on California GOP Electoral Vote Swindle

August 23, 2007

FOX News ran a segment yesterday about the electoral vote initiative brought forth by a group of lawyers that have, in the past, represented the California Republican Party. (California Republicans deny any involvement.) The ploy is an obvious power grab by elements of the right-wing and state Democrats have already mobilized against it. (Sign the Courage Campaign’s petition here.)

Eric Kleefield reports for TPM Cafe’s Election Central:

We are never told anything more about who these men are, who they work for, or what their partisan activities might be — all we’re told is that the guy for this initiative is “pro-reform” and the man opposed to it is “anti-reform.”

As it turns out, “pro-reform” Kevin Eckery is a Republican consultant and the spokesman for Californians for Equal Representation, the astro-turf group offering the initiative. And “anti-reform” Ari Swiller is a Democratic fundraiser.

FOX News is a complete joke of a “news organization.” Their brand of yellow journalism would even make William Randolph Hearst blush.

  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • De.lirio.us
  • Fark
  • Furl
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • SphereIt
  • StumbleUpon
  • TailRank
  • Technorati

Posted by Matt Ortega

Comments

Comments (1)

  1. John Koza
    September 2, 2007 at 7:20am

    The ballot measure to divide California’s 55 electoral votes by congressional district would magnify the worst features of our antiquated system of electing the President.

    Under the process currently used everywhere except Maine and Nebraska, all of a state’s electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who gets the most popular votes in that state. The effect of this winner-take-all rule is that candidates have no reason to campaign in states where they are comfortably ahead or hopelessly behind. Candidates concentrate over two-thirds of their money and visits on just six closely divided battleground states, and 99% of their expenditures in just 16 states. Two thirds of the states (including California) are ignored in presidential elections.

    The proposed ballot measure would not, as claimed, make California relevant in presidential elections. The presidential race is a foregone conclusion in 50 of the California’s 53 grossly gerrymandered congressional districts. Candidates would have no incentive to pay any more attention than they do now to California remaining 50 districts or the state as a whole. Nationwide, there are only 41 districts that are competitive in presidential elections — less than 10%.

    If the district approach were used nationally, it would less accurately reflect the will of the people than the current system. When Gore won the national popular vote in 2000, but Bush won 55% of the country’s congressional districts. In 2004, Bush’s won 50.7% of the popular vote, but 59% of the districts.

    A national popular vote is the way to guarantee that the candidate who gets the most votes in all 50 states becomes President. It is the way to make every person’s vote relevant, regardless of where that person lives. See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com

Leave a Reply