{"id":1486,"date":"2007-08-06T01:46:23","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T01:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2007-08-06T14:57:40","modified_gmt":"2007-08-06T14:57:40","slug":"its_not_just_ab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=1486","title":{"rendered":"It’s Not Just About California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Drum says<\/a> re Jonathan Alter’s Newsweek piece<\/a> on electoral fiddling:<\/p>\n

I see that the latest crackpot initiative from the Golden State has now gotten national attention.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alter says – accurately:<\/p>\n

Our way of electing presidents has always been fertile ground for mischief. But there’s sensible mischief – toying with existing laws and the Constitution to reflect popular will – and then there’s the other kind, which tries to rig admission to the Electoral College for strictly partisan purposes. Mischief-makers in California (Republicans) and North Carolina (Democrats) are at work on changes that would subvert the system for momentary advantage and – in ways the political world is only beginning to understand – dramatically increase the odds that a Republican will be elected president in 2008.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kevin doesn’t see fit to mention North Carolina’s plan to grab some electoral votes for Team Blue. But Jerome Armstrong at MyDD did<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Great news for the Dem candidate in ’08:<\/p>\n

North Carolina appears headed to becoming the third state in the nation to abandon the winner-take-all method for awarding its electoral votes as the House tentatively agreed Thursday to shelve the method.<\/p>\n

\nIn its place, according to the measure approved on a largely party-line vote, would be a more proportional method that would reward the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each of the state’s congressional districts.<\/p>\n

\nThe Senate already has passed the meaure, which would take effect in 2008. A final House vote could come Friday, then the bill would go to Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, just like the majority in the Legislature, which has backed the change. The state Democratic Party also supports it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Democratic candidate would be sure to receive at least 3 EV’s from NC, and probably as high as 7-8, depending on the nominee. Eye on ’08 points out that Dems have the trifecta in Arkansas and Louisiana as well, where they could possibly also make this change. At the least, it ensures that candidates are going to be coming to NC during the 2008 contest. If this had been in effect during 2000, Gore would have been President.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I know it’s impossible to read everything. But it’s not hard to realize that rules that benefit the GOP in California are likely – if applied elsewhere – to benefit the Dems elsewhere.<\/p>\n

I’ve got a basic position; fairness matters more than partisan advantage. I have no problem fighting hard for what I believe in. But partisan issues – while important – are fleeting. A fair political system that everyone can look to as legitimate needs to last us a long time.<\/p>\n

(fixed dumb misspelling of Alter’s name)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Drum says re Jonathan Alter’s Newsweek piece on electoral fiddling: I see that the latest crackpot initiative from the Golden State has now gotten national attention. Alter says – accurately: Our way of electing presidents has always been fertile ground for mischief. But there’s sensible mischief – toying with existing laws and the Constitution […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}