Associated Press
Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R)
As of a few weeks ago, the Republican scheme to rig the presidential election by allocating electoral votes along gerrymandered district lines looked to be in very big trouble. GOP leaders in Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin all denounced the plan, and in Virginia, state Republican lawmakers killed it.
But some lingering question marks remain. As my colleague Laura Conaway explained yesterday, for example, Michigan Republicans are still extremely enthusiastic about the scheme. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has criticized the idea, but the governor has a bad habit of doing what he's said he won't do.
Meanwhile, as Benjy Sarlin reported late yesterday, Pennsylvania remains the state where the election-rigging proposal arguably has the best chance of actually passing.
Pennsylvania Senate president Dominic Pileggi (R) has formally introduced a bill to award the state's electoral votes proportionally, a move that would effectively end its position as a swing state while likely aiding the next Republican presidential candidate. [...]
Pileggi's bill, introduced Thursday, has 13 co-sponsors, half of the 26 votes required to pass a bill through the state senate.
If Turzai's name sounds familiar, it's because he's the guy who made quite a name for himself last summer when he boasted that the state's voter-ID law, ostensibly about the integrity of the electoral process, "is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania."
Gov. Tom Corbett (R), meanwhile, hasn't said whether he supports rigging the state's system of allocating electoral votes to boost his own party, but he has to be careful -- he's considered vulnerable in 2014, and endorsing deliberate cheating would likely boost Democratic turnout against him next year.
If the GOP's election-rigging scheme is adopted in the Keystone State, the advantage for Republicans would be obvious. As Jamelle Bouie noted, if this system were in place last year, Mitt Romney would have won eight of Pennsylvania's electoral votes, instead of zero, despite losing the state by over 300,000 votes.
Sarlin added, however, that the road ahead remains unclear in Pennsylvania: "A spokesman for Pileggi, Erik Arneson, told the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this month that it's not even a "top 20" priority. Asked for an update, Arneson told TPM that the next step for a bill would be a hearing, but nothing has been scheduled and there's no timetable for its passage."
That said, the plan is clearly not dead, and remains a threat to the democratic system.
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I truly think the wisest thing that D's could do right now on Cap Hill is to propose a proportional split to the Electoral College in every state. They could throw the plan right back in the GOP's face about how much more fair it is and how now we can ensure that the winner of the popular vote wins the election. Watch the R's try and squirm out of why it's a great idea state by state but a terrible idea nationally.
Nice idea, but it would require a Constitutional Amendment. If you're going that far you might as well flip it to a popular nationwide vote for president.
I agree, but for some reason I don't think we can get that through the hill. The public would love it and it would greatly simplify elections but there is are too many states rights congressional reps that wouldn't go for it.
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle.
Tigerarmy247 . . . Republicans would go for your idea in a heartbeat. Democrats would win their next presidential election in about the year 2100.
It amazes me that in swing states there really are politicians bold enough to try to move this kind of bill. By definition, swing states don't heavily favor one party or another and any party that makes such a move would likely mobilize the opposing base against them. It would serve as career suicide in the state itself. I wonder if these people have national positions with the party that they are eying instead since that would likely be the only career path open to them after pushing for this.
Well, the problem is in Pennsylvania, as my nephew in Pittsburgh notes to me, is that even if the Democrats doubled their votes, the gerrymander of state legislature districts is so complete that the only way they will ever defeat the Republicans is to start killing them, since the districts are designed for permanent Republican majorities of at least 5% of the vote.
What surprises me is that the media and the business interests in these swing states are so silent about this. Money pours into these states in every election cycle because of their importance to the outcome. If electoral votes are apportioned by Congressional district, there's little need for outside forces ot wage campaigns--and spend lots of money there. The outcome is pretty well predetermined in most districts under the current gerrymander.
I think Snyder wants Michigan to be "business-friendly." And so far, it seems to me, he is not willing to risk being considered a social activist or change the state constitution. He vetoed the legislation necessary for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan to participate in the new healthcare market, because the GOP put an anti-abortion measure in it. The bills were separated and the BC/BS measure passed into law and the anti-abortion one did not.
Throw these shysters out of office. These people take an Oath of Office and pledge to carry out the work of "the people" that put them into office. This lying and cheating not only undermine democracy - but is in direct violation of their Oath to serve. In short it is treason against the people!
Zora . . . They're neither cheating nor being guilty of anything more than taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity Democrats gave them in 2010. Dem voters wanted to express their disappointment with President Obama and the party because of its failure to enact the kind of health care reform legislation they wanted to see--single payer, or at least the ACA with a public option.
Those voters sat on their hands and didn't turn out. Republicans did. Everybody knows what Republicans are.
It's like the old tale of the scorpion and the swan. (The scorpion needs to cross the river and asks the swan if she will take him to the other side. The swan is dubious because she believes the scorpion will sting her and they'll both drown. The scorpion reassures her that this won't happen. He gets on, and, shortly thereafter, stings the trusting but gulible swan. When the swan asks him why he did that, the scorpion replies, "It's what I do.")
We know that this is what Republicans do. They're unashamed and pretty much up front about it. We know that, like the scorpion, they'll say anything to get what they want--and then they'll sting us. Shame on those who are fooled.
If you are suggesting that therefore we must all just roll over and be @!$%#ed, then thpffft!
The simplest solution, and one that makes the most sense, is to have Presidents elected by the total national vote.
For every other office at the federal level (obviously excluding the vice-president), the elected officials represent their state at various levels.
This could then end this stupidity of candidates focusing on a handful of states.
I realize the state's rights issues here, but at some point you have to wonder why these laws don't go to the Supreme Court instantly. The court can easily delay making a decision until after the damage is done.
Have you noticed recently who sits on the Supreme Court?
evil never sleeps
You're damn right it will. I personally have already committed to working as hard as I can against this jerk next year, and this is only one reason why. He's got to go.
It doesn't matter whether Corbett voices support for it or not. Everyone knows that, given another term, he would sign it in a second.
Pennsylvania Democrats don't already have enough reason to turn out in droves to send this guy packing in 2014. If they don't shame on them.
Anytime a bill is correctly labeled "a scheme", it makes me sad for the state of politics.
I foresee it getting very ugly here in the Keystone state in the near future. Instead of focusing on our crumbling roads, our crumbling schools and our bankrupt state capital, this gerrymandered government is focusing on stripping away the rights of children, women, minorities, the disabled and the poor.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/politics&id=8720814
"Meanwhile, it is projected to accumulate around $350 million to $400 million into reserves while cutting businesses' taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars and slashing hundreds of millions of dollars from services for the poor, homeless, troubled and disabled.
Aid for public schools and universities will remain flat - a handful of public schools nearing financial collapse will see a little extra money - after absorbing more than $1 billion in cuts in the current fiscal year.
It was those cuts in aid and the memory of deep education cuts in the past 12 months that most rankled Democrats at a time when Corbett pushed for tax breaks for a subsidiary of Netherlands-based oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC."
Tax breaks for oil companies while schools are closing due to lack of funding.... Corbett is a monster and I can't wait to vote him out of office!
How long until Jimmy Carter et al. have to start monitoring elections inside the U.S.? Could have probably used them in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.