LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4, 2007
Ballot Push Linked To "Swift Boat" Backers
Lawyers Pushing Electoral Vote Change Have Ties To GOP Donor Who Financed Attacks On Kerry
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(CBS/AP)
Charles H. Bell and Thomas Hiltachk's law firm banked nearly $65,000 in fees from a California-based political committee funded almost solely by Bob J. Perry that targeted Democrats in 2006. Perry, a major Republican donor, contributed nearly $4.5 million to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that made unsubstantiated but damaging attacks on Kerry three years ago.
Hiltachk has been pushing a proposal to revamp the way California awards its electoral votes, a change Democrats claim would rig the 2008 race. He and Bell are the sole officers of a new political committee, Californians for Equal Representation, that is raising money to place the plan on the ballot in June.
Their success could hinge on whether they get the financial backing to collect more than 400,000 petition signatures needed to qualify the proposal for the ballot. And while Perry has not donated to their cause, his wealth and connections make him a potential financier for a drive that could cost more than $1 million. Running a statewide campaign would cost millions more.
Democrats are working to defeat the effort and already have lined up supporters such as Hollywood producer Stephen Bing.
Supporters say the vote-change plan could open a new era of fairness in presidential contests. But the law firm's link to Perry and other Republican candidates and causes will make it difficult to separate the proposal from partisan politics.
Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk is one of the most politically involved law firms in the state. According to a news story on its Web site, Bell keeps a life-sized cardboard image of President Bush in his office.
The push to alter the division of electoral votes in California - a change with national implications - "is nothing more than an attempt by right-wing Republicans to change the rules in ways that benefits them," said Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party.
The fight over California's electoral votes is shaping up as an important subplot in the national campaign.
Like most states, California awards all 55 of its electoral votes to the statewide winner in presidential elections - the largest single prize in the nation.
Under the ballot proposal, the statewide winner would get only two electoral votes. The rest would be distributed to the winning candidate in each of the state's congressional districts.
In effect that would create 53 races, each with one electoral vote up for grabs. President Bush carried 22 of those districts in 2004, while losing the statewide vote by double digits.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 43 CommentsYou''re the poor journalist. Not one member of Kerry''s crew said he was a liar.
When you point a finger at someone else, you leave 4 pointing back at you. You sir are the liar(as usual).
Posted by im4honesty
Not quite.
Only the Democrap''s exceed thier corruption. They learned from the best!!
You mean the "group of men John Kerry accused of War Crimes" before congress?
Why cant you get it right CBS? 3 out of 16 men in Kerry''s unit supported him. 12 of them said Kerry was a liar. Unsubstantiated? NOT.
Poor journalism. **** poor.
how the demonic-rats are doing it without changing the usa constitution!!!
Other attempts to change the Electoral College system have failed, most of them aimed at amending the Constitution, a drawn-out process that requires approval by Congress and ratification by at least 38 states.
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages/articles/myfoxcol_20070117.php
Apr 10th, 2007
Today, Maryland Governor Martin O''''Malley signed the National Popular Vote bill. Maryland thus became the first state to pass the law that -- once passed by sufficient states -- will ensure that the presidency goes to the person who wins the most votes nationwide.
And in the last few days, the Hawaii legislature passed the National Popular Vote bill and sent it on to Governor Linda Lingle.
The National Popular Vote act is an interstate agreement that effectively change the system of picking the president. It''''s an ingenious plan that doesn''''t require a constitutional amendment -- instead, it would become effective once it becomes law in enough states equaling a majority of the Electoral College vote. Once it passes this threshold, the Electoral College becomes instantly irrelevant, replacing our presidential elections with a pure popular vote.
http://www.democrats.org/page/community/group/NationalPopularVoteReformtheElectoralCol
Where are the people that want their votes counted on this issue?
Does this effort in California smell the same as Delay''s efforts in Texas?
This isn''t the most important news going on in the world right now but it is news in the sense that the public needs to know what''s going on.
This really isn''t on the same level as what Soros,Moveon, or any other group or individual is doing within the confines of the current rules.
This is an attempt to substitute one disproportionate system of representation for another. Doing away with the electoral vote and going by the popular vote would be great; you can''t get any more representative than that.
This would be even less representtive than the electoral college. The point of the electoral college is to give greater weight to the more populous states while still giving some of a vote to smaller states. What this would do is treat all Congressional districts equally without consideration for their proportion of the population(Bakersfield would equal LA).
It''s clearly not done in the spirit of democracy.
it should have to be a change to the constitution of the usa or nothing....
Someone gets screwed if the electoral college stays for is abolished; right now, no one campaigns in CA, TX, NY, MA, GA; all states that we know who is going to win before the votes are even counted; under a popular vote system, those high population areas would be in play while no one would waste time campaigning in Iowa or West Virginia or New Mexico that are sparsely populated, but now are always "battleground" states. Obviously we know why the GOP are focusing on CA for this amendment; it makes sense; its not "evil" or "underhanded", its smart politics, just as it is for the Dems who are pushing this in NC! Personally, I think all states should be winner takes all or all states should be proportional; but if a state and its population vote for something like this because they want the candidates to actually have to care what they want, which right now, CA is taken for granted by the Dems and written off by the GOP in presidential politics, that''s their call...everyone knows the national motive, its not news.
I didn''t like what the democrats were trying to do here in North Carolina, but how do the republicans propose challenging it while trying to do the same thing in California? Don''t they look enough like ***** already? If not, let them go for it!
We need to either do away with the electoral college altogether or not play games with it for purely partison advantage for either side. California went first and North Carolina follwed.
Others may follow too.
None of it will effect 2008 because if it goes through it will be tied up in court well past the vote, unless of course the republican campaign committee also known as the Supreme Court decides to throw out legal precedent again.
the redstate republicans would not allow this type of vote in their states.
just another bush type of flim flam.
war, hate, arrogance, rednecks and white trash christians...
that''s the south for you, folks!
see, the demonic-rats are only looking to change enough states to make the electorial college meaningless...
is this also unconstitutional??? it should be...
had you read it, it says colorado and some other staes... without changing the constitution??? that is just wrong...
Other attempts to change the Electoral College system have failed, most of them aimed at amending the Constitution, a drawn-out process that requires approval by Congress and ratification by at least 38 states.
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages/articles/myfoxcol_20070117.php
Apr 10th, 2007
Today, Maryland Governor Martin O''Malley signed the National Popular Vote bill. Maryland thus became the first state to pass the law that -- once passed by sufficient states -- will ensure that the presidency goes to the person who wins the most votes nationwide.
And in the last few days, the Hawaii legislature passed the National Popular Vote bill and sent it on to Governor Linda Lingle.
The National Popular Vote act is an interstate agreement that effectively change the system of picking the president. It''s an ingenious plan that doesn''t require a constitutional amendment -- instead, it would become effective once it becomes law in enough states equaling a majority of the Electoral College vote. Once it passes this threshold, the Electoral College becomes instantly irrelevant, replacing our presidential elections with a pure popular vote.
http://www.democrats.org/page/community/group/NationalPopularVoteReformtheElectoralCol
gop are like thomas jefferson and want to spend their lunch money on weapons and go kick the jihadists in their arses.....
What Thomas Jefferson learned from the Muslim book of jihad
Thomas Jefferson knew about fascist nazi islam..... he killed plenty of them....
In 1786 Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli''s envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). They asked him by what right he extorted money and took slaves. Jefferson reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:
The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet (Mohammed), that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to heaven.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War
http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan07/jeff_quran.htm
muslim justifies slavery and piracy%u2026
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?6bdec278-6a71-4436-bc4d-29d1c54b0ad7
MUSLIM PIRATES STRIKE AGAIN
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2005/06/muslim-pirates-strike-again.html
These are people who are trying to control America for their own interests.
Same old dirty tricks.
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