Virginia Republican State Senator Jill Vogel
First, a correction. In our segment last night about Virginia changing the rules for electing a president, we reported that the bill had gone to a full committee of the Virginia Senate, and that the committee has a 10 to five GOP majority. That was incorrect, and my mistake. Republicans hold a majority of eight to seven. As Think Progress reports, one of those Republican senators is not sold on the idea of rigging the election. Senator Jill Vogel told them:
"... I am generally not in favor right now of the bill and it's very unlikely that I will vote for it in full committee or the Senate floor."
A couple of factors argue against Virginia Republicans gaining from a change in the way they apportion the state's electoral college vote. For one thing, under that system they would have given votes to Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore. For another, the history of openly changing election rules to benefit one side does not end well for that side.
With the Virginia Senate equally divided, a unified Democratic caucus plus Vogel could defeat the bill. You might remember that last year Vogel dropped her own bill for mandated ultrasounds, saying she had not realized they would be mandated vaginal ultrasounds. (She then supported the bill reworked and signed into law by Governor Bob McDonnell. In this session, she broke with her party to move an LGBT nondiscrimation bill forward.)
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that the Virginia House of Delegates is having cold feet about the Senate's surprise gerrymandering this week:
"My sense is the House is getting squishy," said the Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid about internal party discussions. "These guys are freaking out. . . . I think they'd like to pass the hot potato."
It might be that Virginia Republicans are in the process of figuring out how far is too far for Virginia Republicans.
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Bad press can work wonders. What do the Virginia Republicans intend to do when large numbers of voters in the urban and suburban areas come out to vote in the next state elections? Those voters in the DC area are going to come out in large numbers for state elections. Do Republicans have plans to gerrymander state districts for their state elections? This is all going to end very badly for Republicans if the bill is passed and signed or the governor fails to veto it.
Mike, this is gerrymandering state districts for state elections. Precisely. The Senate is currently split evenly, and this will change it from 20-20 to 22-18.
Check out this site that is promoting the National Popular Vote:
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/
It would solve this problem once and for all. It is halfway done already.
This current effort to skewer presidential election results is in complete and absolute discord with our Founding Framers who specifically created a government where different institutions shared power, factions did not yet exist, and political parties were a thing not yet in existence!
Now, after 200+ years of our democratic heritage, a political party has given into an all-powerful calling that is usurping their democratic common sense, and they had better be prepared for our backlash! -Kevo
Squishy?
"Aww, you guys made me ink."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkO03zVFvXA&NR=1
These are the tactics of a group in decline. They know they are doomed and they hope to preserve themselves through tricks and strategies. As they lose ground they will come up with more and more desperate measures to keep themselves out of the "ash bin" of history. If you look back in history, political parties do disappear. Ever hear of the Wigs or the "Bull Moose Party"? Wikipedia lists 86 US political parties that are no longer with us. The current Republican Party is going down, time for a new one or probably a re-branding.
Agreed. I can smell the desperation. Of course, what I smell is emanating from Harrisburg, PA; it is putrid!
While GuvJustCloseYourEyesCorbett distracts with what a "great" thing he's doing by suing about the penalties to Penn State (which itself is a distraction from his part in the scandal!), the PA House has issued House Bill 94 to take away the majority vote in PA in Presidential elections.
One can only hope that folks are paying attention and will vote all Repugs out in the mid-term. Of course the fact that the voter I D law will be in full force and effect at that election should serve as a reminder of how GOP wants to take away one's vote.
Whigs?
He who has neither the Brains or the Balls to play by the rules of the game tilts the playing field.
While this would be unfair, it is probably Constitutional. We should not be defending the antiquated and undemocratic electoral college.
Every other democracy that directly elects a President uses a national popular vote, and so should we, with a runoff between the top two if no one gets 50%.
www.nationalpopularvote.com
Instead of defending the Electoral College, progressives should offer a REAL counter proposal. We need to have national elections when we elect a President, not a limited election in a handful of "swing states" while the rest of the country is ignored.
The idea that this scheme "Would" have awarded electoral college votes to Clinton, Gore and Kerry is completely moot those elections are over. When you take something like this and team it up with suppression tactics like Voter ID and shorter voting hours it still adds up to a massive power grab and is the State Governments are taking their ques from the National Republican party we have already seen that they just do NOT care what Democrats or even moderates think of them. What was it Nate Silver figured out that there were ONLY 35 competitive districts left in the country? All the GOP would have to do is gerrymander a few more Democrats out of their seats and create a couple more that are safe for themselves and they won't even need the moderates anymore. Without trying to seem overly dramatic what you are looking at is the beginning of a bloodless coup d'etat.
It should be winner take all. Why should we reward a candidate whose ideas are not well enough accepted to win?
If the candidate is not backed by enough financing to afford advertising, etc., it's unlikely that many people would know what the candidate's ideas were. Also, it would be very confusing for the public to keep track of what is going on politically in all 50 states. Up until now the elections have focused on the "battleground" states, making it a little easier for the media and public to keep up with what's happening.
I feel that for any party to rig elections is UN-American. People have the right to have there vote counted, not the way you want it. You should be ashamed to even do this you UN-American Foe.
I feel that for any party to rig elections is UN-American.
I agree Paul. Here in Illinois the recent gerrymandering was done by the Democrats and it worked pretty well. This must be banned and the districts should be somewhat geometrically logical, not 30 miles by a 1/4 mile.
This is all about Virginia Republicans acquiring a permanent majority in the General Assembly and the Congressional Districts. The apportionment of votes by Congressional District will also allow them to allocate most of our electors to vote for a Republican Presidential candidate because of the way those districts are drawn. Every Virginia Senator who voted for the redistricting of the Senate districts, should be kicked out of office. Virginia Senate Republicans have met the legal definition of sedition, I believe. In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order.
Question, and sorry if it's a dumb one or been answered elsewhere: wouldn't the Justice Department have a say in this if they pass the bill?
If by "freak out" this known Republican means "carefully considering hitching on", then OK. "Freak out" means something completely different here in Southern California...
Unfortunately no.
Here in NY the state Repubs carved out what they thought would be a Democrat-proof district.
It was legal but , in a wondrous example of Karma, they then lost the district to a Democrat.
The Virginia Repubs with enough sense to get "squishy" about this are right.
Thanks, Steve - and to Rachel as well for helping raise awareness on the story.
One more thing comes to mind, remember what happend in Tennessee in 1946.
The Battle Of Athens.
In 2000, George W. Bush won Virginia by about 8%-points, and in doing so he walked away with all 13 of its EVs. He then went on to win the overall Electoral College by an exceedingly narrow 271-266 count.
However, five Virginia Democrats won US House seats that election, so it's probable that Gore might have won in those same five CDs as well. Under the same EV-allocation plan now being considered by the Virginia State Senate, Bush would have won only 8 of Virginia's 13 EVs that election and Gore would have been awarded the other 5.
Then applying that change to the actual final result, it would have been Gore beating Bush by the exact same 271-266 EV tally.
Gee! How about that!?
It makes me think that the Republicans in Virginia (and OH, PA, MI, WI, and FL) now think that a Republican presidential candidate can no longer win in their state.
Yesterday on RMS I think I remember Rachel saying that Democrats had been expecting a move like this somewhere in the country. How come the Virginia Senate Democrats with their fragile 20 to 20 voting power were surprised by this move when one of them left the state? Also, do the Virginia Senate Democrats now just have to wait for a Senate Republican to leave the state or get the flu and then undo the gerrymander bill? Or have the Virginia Senate Republicans cleverly protected themselves against such a move? - Dave
Of course it works. Rigging the election through gerrymandering allowed the GOP House to win the majority. I'm sick of hearing about it with no one having one good idea on how to stop it. Thanks to Harry Reid today, we'll have 4 more years of gridlock and possibly a soviet style 2016 election. The Dems are spineless by nature. All the talk shows say this is bad, ooooh, that's it! Why aren't voter advocate groups storming the Virginia Capital or something? Maybe we deserve to be floor mats.
One of the reasons why the Electoral College has remained in effect for all of these years is because it is assumed that all of the swing states benefit so greatly from the attention and advertising dollars, that no politician from these states would advocate eliminating it. However, if the state republicans are willing to sacrifice the attention and money that comes from these contests, then they can not logically oppose shifting to a popular vote, at least not on those grounds. This could be a unique opportunity to push for the elimination of the Electoral College. Sign the petition at:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-electoral-college-and-allow-american-people-elect-their-president-direct-popular-vote/KWPWPkTH
Spread the word. Let's make this the first petition to hit the new threshold of 100k signatures. Thank You.
Signed.
Another petition calling for the direct election of the President.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-popular-election-president-eliminate-electoral-college/m8kGdNdY
Signed.
This effort to gerrymander congressional districts to keep permanent Republican majorities at the state and Federal level, and then change the rules for the electoral college is all about maintaining minority white control of the government. Republicans realize that the demographics are changing and not in their favor, so their only hope is to rig the system against non-whites. It is American apartheid on the political level. What is obvious is that Republicans don't want to govern, they want to RULE. That is fundamentally the difference in the two parties. BTW - I am white.
Forget the Electoral College, forget gerrymandering - just determine the results of any election by popular vote. State/Commonwealth districts should be by County or Parish lines. Some of those could be combined to get an equitable number of voters. The number of US Senators and Representatives would remain the same depending on the rise or decline of population. No more of this "make a snake" districts in order to pad the vote one way or another. It's disgusting and disgraceful that the greatest Nation on Earth has politicians who feel they have to cheat to win.
This plan illustrates the obscene sense of entitlement the gop exhibits that their "vision" for America is superior and unquestionable. Since Prebus was installed again you can bet his directive is to execute their gerrymandering strategy and it stinks as bad as any military coup implemented in a third world country. It's bureaucratic and lengthy to push through but nose to nose with the morality and legality regarding the overthrow of any government. Why are there no laws or amendments to prevent this? It proves that republicans endorse anarchy and takes any means necessary to include disregarding the citizens it's sworn to represent.