Remember back to 2007. It was the days of George W. Bush, and you had your mullet. Well, maybe not the mullet, but there were some serious Republican Dirty Tricks going on. In the continuing effort to a) steal power for the Republicans and b) do some seriously dirty tricks, right-wing initiative filer extraordinaire Ted Costa has brought back the Dirty Tricks Initiative. He filed it with the AG's office last week. More from Dan Morain:
With no fanfare, Costa last week submitted to the attorney general's office an initiative he calls the "Electoral College Reform Act." On its face, the populist proposal would play to voters' sense of fairness and desire for competition among candidates.
In reality, this initiative would be a Republican power grab with national implications. The change contemplated by Costa and other consultants could push a Republican to victory in a close presidential race.
"It is the kind of thing that puts the metal to the grindstone and sparks fly," Costa told me.
Under the proposal, California's 55 electoral votes no longer would go to whoever wins the popular vote. Rather, they'd be apportioned based on the candidate who wins in particular congressional districts(SacBee)
Here's the thing. Costa loves to put these initiatives out there, and see what he gets. Normally, it's nothing. But on occasion, see the 2003 recall, he catches lightning in a bottle and he's off to the races. The scarier part is that if President Obama doesn't have any challengers in the primary, we are looking at a very Republican electorate in the presidential primary.
It could be something of a perfect storm, if Costa can get Darrell Issa or some other rich Republican to fund this one. It was a nightmare last time, and it will be a nightmare again. If the Republicans take 15-20 electoral college votes from California, it becomes extremely difficult to challenge them.
At this point, there is a long way to go, but if it does grow, we'll need to rally again to kill the Dirty Tricks once again.
