Crystal Strait noted earlier that the dirty trick initiative appears to have some new life. It is unclear quite how feasible it is for them to gather enough signatures to get it on the ballot, or if they really have the money to give it a shot. The bottom line is that there are paid signature gatherers out there trying to get names. The LAT Top of the Ticket blog has the latest information:
But in recent days, the state's network of signature gatherers has been abuzz with talk that the initiative is not quite dead. GOP consultant Ed Rollins has told California backers of the measure that he has cash lined up, according to three sources reached by The Times. (Rollins did not immediately return phone calls.)
At this point these are just claims. They have money, but is it the $2 million or so they would need? Or are they just making a show. That would be a huge waste of money. Who else is behind this? Some familiar names to the recall and more info below the fold.
"I haven't looked at the language and I'm not saying I'm against it or I'm for it or anything."
Well, now he has 2,148 opportunities to read the thing and say whether he is for it or against the dirty trick initiative. Thanks to you.
We asked the blogosphere and thousands of Courage Campaign members to send him a copy and boy did you deliver. I had to get my weightlifter friend to help me cary them in to the Governor's office. Mind you it is about 100 degrees in Sacramento today.
I had given the press office a heads up that I was coming, just so we would not have an issue when I arrived. Unfortunately, the guy I talked to was no longer around when I arrived. A Sergeant at Arms directed us to the back door drop-off location. After some convincing and him talking to the governor's staff, we were allowed to go in to the governors office. Everyone was very gracious. The CHP officer laughed when I told them what we were up to. Not so much from the governor's staff...
Here are the boxes sitting on the official seal of the governor and one of me with the boxes. They are now in the hands of the governor's staff. Hopefully, at least one makes it's way to the governor's desk.
There has been an interesting dichotomy when it comes to how the press is covering the dirty tricks initiative. Editorial boards as diverse as the NYT to the OC Register are coming out with strong editorials against. Check out this language today from the OC Register (Andrew has more at the Liberal OC). It is titled: "Reform for Losers".
A proposed change, which could be on next June's ballot, in the way California's votes are allocated in the presidential election might have a sheen of fairness, but it is nakedly partisan and profoundly subversive of our constitutional system. Both it and a competing Democratic "reform" deserve to be roundly rejected.
While I might quibble with the last line, it is worth it to have the biggest paper in the reddest county in the state call the initiative "nakedly partisan and profoundly subversive". Lehane and the Fair Election Reform campaign are doing a very good job with earned media, well except for FOX and Dan Walters, but we all know they are a special case.
Media Matters made the dirty trick initiative the main thrust of Jamison Foser's weekly column, calling it a "constitutional Calvinball". He goes right after Dan Walters:
