A top official of the effort to steal up to 20 electoral votes in California sent out an email to supporters of the Rudy Giuliani campaign asking them to sign petitions to get the measure on the ballot. This could be a violation of federal election law, which prohibits coordination between Presidential campaigns and separate ballot issues. Top of the Ticket has the latest.
The missive, obtained by The Times' Dan Morain, is addressed, "Hello Fellow Rudy Supporter!" Its author, Tony Andrade, is a Republican activist who helped draft the electoral college initiative. Previously, he was among those who helped place the ultimately successful recall of Gov. Gray Davis on the ballot in 2003 [...]
Chris Lehane, a Democratic activist who is organizing the campaign to block the measure, said of the Andrade e-mail: "It sounds like something that the Federal Election Commission and Department of Justice will be very interested in seeing."
Maria Comella, spokeswoman for Giuliani's White House bid, previously has stressed that neither he nor his campaign has had anything to do with pushing the ballot initiative.
It's unclear how Andrade would have gotten a list of Giuliani supporters in California without some form of coordination. The initiative's new backers, most of them connected to Giuliani in one way or another, are running from this as fast as possible.
Veteran GOP strategist Ed Rollins, who is overseeing the attempt to put the initiative before voters, distanced himself from Andrade's note.
"None of us has anything to do with any [presidential] campaign; we understand the law very, very well," Rollins said. Pledging to try to "make sure that [the e-mail] gets stomped," Rollins added, "We need to be very sensitive to the fact that people have speculated that this is part of the Giuliani campaign."
The email included a link to the petition and asks signers to get 10 other people to sign it as well. A campaign confident in their ability to get the necessary signatures wouldn't rely on an email ask, and they certainly wouldn't come this close to violating election law.
This is not the first time that a link has been uncovered between the Giuliani campaign and the dirty tricks initiative. In fact, almost every connection we've seen has gone in this fashion. You'll remember that the first incarnation of the measure was derailed when a murky donation from a shell group in Missouri was eventually traced to Paul Singer, Giuliani's northeast finance director.
These are serious charges, and the Federal Election Commission needs to address them immediately. Steve Benen has more.
Today's not-the-fires Blog Roundup is on the flip. I thought about doing the fun categorization thing, but (a) there aren't all that many posts, and (b) I've gone through right around 1,000 posts just for blog roundup in the last 2 days, not counting any reading I've done on my own account. My eyes are a little glazed over. So, it's just a link dump.
Let me know what I missed in comments, or just use this as an open thread.
An influential California Republican said Thursday he is attempting to raise millions of dollars to change the way the state awards its electoral votes — a bid to revive a campaign that stalled just days ago.
"I am making phone calls because I think this is a critically important issue in the presidential sweepstakes," said Lew Uhler, president of the Sacramento-based National Tax Limitation Committee. (AP 10/4/07)
The New York Times decides to wade into the growing Rudy Giuliani scandal regarding his campaign violating election law to fund the Dirty Tricks initiative, but they wanted to be all fair and balanced, so they framed it as some kind of Rudy vs. Hillary battle royale, calling it a "taste of '08" (apparently the primary season is over. The NYT said so!). Which I guess it is; the Democrats will marshal support legally while the Republicans will fight dirty:
Rudy versus Hillary, the West Coast edition - it's on.
Supporters of Rudolph W. Giuliani and of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are embroiled in their first major affray of the political season over a ballot initiative on presidential electoral votes some 2,500 miles from the pancake houses of Skaneateles, N.Y., and the fire stations of Queens.
Uh, no they're not. Rudy's people financed a bid to rig the Presidential election, and the ENTIRE DEMOCRATIC PARTY fought back. Clinton was not even the first to officially denounce it. That was Dodd, followed by Edwards. No Democrat in their right mind was backing away from this fight. By contrast, NO prominent Republican was affiliated with the initiative other than Rudy, and even he was doing it in a shady, back-channel way that is only now being revealed.
The weird thing about this article is that one senses Chris Lehane WANTS this to be set out this way, as if to push that Hillary Clinton's team was the sole defender of the Democratic Party. That may be a good clipping for him to use when he eventually joins the campaign, but it sells way short the combined efforts of the entire party apparatus, from the grassroots on up.
Frank Russo has so far had the best coverage of Rudy Giuliani's involvement in the Dirty Tricks campaign to steal a bunch of California's electoral votes. It appears that practically everyone associated with this campaign had a tie to Rudy Giuliani in some form or another. We already knew that the lone funder, laundered through a hastily assembled LLC in Missouri called "Take Initiative America," was actually the chair of Giuliani's northeast funding operation named Paul Singer. What we didn't know was that this laundering, crafted to skirt the strict election laws in California, was part of a pattern of interlocking front groups that would hide who was behind this whole thing - perhaps even the candidate himself. This quote is from Chris Lehane, who was running the opposition to the Dirty Tricks campaign and was in a position to delve pretty deeply into what was going on here. (I know not everyone here's a fan of Lehane, but this sounds genuine)
A few stories of interest that I wanted to pass along:
Chris Lehane and the Fair Election Reform Group are calling for an investigation into the funding of the Dirty Tricks Initiative. Lehane and others allege possible violations of federal election law.
The Humane Society is gathering signatures for an initiative to regulate factory farming practices. "The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act provides basic protections requiring that animals be able to turn around and extend their limbs. It will prevent the use of inhumane factory farming practices such as keeping animals confined in small crates or cages—specifically, veal crates for calves, battery cages for egg-laying hens, and gestation crates for breeding pigs."
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer has some ideas for balancing the budget. According to Bill, they are just ideas and he doesn't necessarily endorse them. Good thing, too, because one of his "ideas" is totally cutting off the UC system from state money. Brilliant idea, there. You know what else we could do? Charge the kiddos for public school, that would free up billions!
LA might need to pass a replacement phone utility tax if the current law is struck down in court.Villaraigosa is trying to get the measure declared an "emergency" to allow passage with a simpple majority.
LGBT organizations across the country are decrying Speaker Pelosi's decision to exclude the transgendered from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. I've heard that the Speaker, and her staff, have been getting in earful here in the district as well. Almost all organizations are standing together saying that they will not leave part of the community behind, except, that is, the Human Rights Campaign. I guess they need some achievements to justify that building they own by Capitol Hill. Too bad any passage of ENDA without the entire community would be a complete sell-out of those who they were supposed to represent.
Here are some notes from a few stories I'd been meaning to get to all week.
• Frank Russo had a good recap of the initial hearing from the three-judge panel charged with finding a solution to California's prison crisis. This panel may result in the early release of thousands of prisoners to reduce overcrowding. The panel does not appear to be able to be swayed by political expediency (unlike the Legislature for the past 30 years), saying "This is a judicial and not a political process." It is clear that the torturous conditions in California jails and the inability to deliver even basic medical care violates the Constitution and will be dealt with swiftly. Even the Correctional Officers union has come around to the point of view that reductions in the prison population are needed. Only a cowardly, leadership-challenged political class refuses to face reality.
At this point, it seems a long shot, but some GOP activists are still going after some Dirty Tricks. From MediaNews:
"The issue is so hot, it's going to continue on," said Tony Andrade, a Sacramento Republican who had actually submitted his own electoral vote initiative, but then deferred to Hiltachk's effort. "People are lining up signing these petitions. There's a lot of enthusiasm for this from a political point of view." (LA Daily News 9/29/07)
Given the cost of gathering the signatures, it's quite a longshot with the establishment seemingly ditching the DIrty Tricks Initiative, but, keep your eyes on the DIrty Tricks.
There remained a chance that the measure could be revived, but only if a major donor were to come forward to fund the petition drive. However, time is short to gather the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed by the end of November. And backers said Thursday that they believed the measure was all but dead, at least for the 2008 election.
Plagued by a lack of money, supporters of a statewide initiative drive to change the way California's 55 electoral votes are apportioned, first revealed here by Top of the Ticket in July, are pulling the plug on that effort.
In an exclusive report to appear on this website late tonight and in Friday's print editions, The Times' Dan Morain reports that the proposal to change the winner-take-all electoral vote allocation to one by congressional district is virtually dead with the resignation of key supporters, internal disputes and a lack of funds.
(also up in orange)
In what can only be described as yet another dirty trick, the campaign pushing the initiative to steal California's electoral votes disclosed its main donor in a campaign finance report earlier this week. The lone $175,000 donor was attributed to a Missouri based company called Take Initiative America (T.I.A). The only name we have is Charles A. Hurth III, an attorney in the small town Union, MO and big donor to Rudy Giuliani's campaign. He is the guy who registered the company, way back on September 10th. The donation came in on the 11th. The proponents of the ballot measure swear they have no idea who actually gave the money. (See also Shane Goldmacher's story. He broke it)
Let's get this straight. A ballot initiative was filed by the lawyers for the California Republican Party (CRP) to try and steal 20 of California's electoral votes. The only donor we know about appears to be a front company, set up the day before the donation was made in Missouri. And we know that the lawyers for the CRP have done work for Bob Perry, the Switfboat guy in the past. Is Bob Perry running money through a Giuliani donor in Missouri? If not, who is?
This is clearly a front group. Under the law we don't have any right to know who wrote the original check. We only know the name of the guy who is the registered agent for the LLC that gave the money to the campaign.
(We need to stay on top of the education aspect of this. There are already reports that low-information voters are getting bogus explanations of what's in PERA. - promoted by Lucas O'Connor)
UCLA is about to begin classes this week. That's right, this week. I know, it's almost October. That's how we roll. 8-)
So in the inaugural issue of the Daily Bruin, they generally have submissions from both the Bruin Republicans and the Bruin Democrats. So what does the president of Bruin Democrats have to talk about in the first issue? Iraq? Global warming? Health care? Our kick-ass quarter-opening barbecue?
Bradley Whitford, the actor who played Josh Lyman on the beloved show "The West Wing"" is riled up about the dirty tricks initiative. Rick Jacobs asked him to film a video for Courage Campaign.
Brad sat down and wrote his own heartfelt script and they filmed it in his house surrounded by all of his children's toys. As Brad says: "I don't know about you, but my children cannot afford another Republican president."
Watch the video and check out the new official No Dirty Tricks website. Oh and join the conference call with Brad, Rick, Jane Hamsher (Firedoglake), John Amato (Crooks and Liars) and Ben Tulchin (pollster) at 4 pm today. They will be answering questions from those on the call and a few submitted ahead of time.
You can support the campaign, and our ability to create these videos and hold these conference calls by contributing via ActBlue.
The latest Rasmussen poll just released this morning has some good news regarding the dirty GOP ballot initiative.
A proposal has been made in California that would award one Electoral Vote to the winner of each Congressional District along with two Electoral Votes for the statewide winner. In a theoretical sense, 47% of California voters think that's a good idea. Thirty-one percent (31%) disagree while 23% are not sure. However, even that tepid level of support dissipates when voters learn that a change in California could significantly increase the number of Republican Electoral Votes. Once that is factored into the equation, support drops to 38% and opposition increases to 41%.
Excellent. This is the first poll I've seen where opposition is MORE than support when people are informed of the consequences. But again, no resting on our laurels. Keep up the fight to educate as many Californians as possible!
DNC CHair Howard Dean knows exactly what's up with the so-called "Presidential Electoral Reform Act", it's just one more way to keep GOP in office by gaming the system. It's just one more dirty trick from the gang of villains that brought you Abu Ghraib, the Katrina botched handling, and the rise of the Taliban in Afganistan. They are both corrupt to the core and unfit to lead. More Video over the flip.
(Good to see our electeds jump aboard in fighting this dirty trick. - promoted by David Dayen)
This is one straight out of Karl Rove's political playbook. A group of Republican political operatives and their powerful special interests have hatched a desperate scheme to rig California's electoral process to their advantage. They're proposing a statewide ballot initiative to change how California casts its electoral votes for President. They've cleverly labeled it the "Presidential Election Reform Act," which would sound credible if it weren't so cynical.
But make no mistake, this wolf-in-sheep's-clothing has nothing to do with reform or protecting voters' interests or preserving the integrity of our Constitution. It's an audacious power grab by the GOP as it spirals into irrelevance leading up to the 2008 Presidential race.
The Merc is reporting on a new strategy from the CDP to disrupt signature-gathering for the Dirty Tricks Initiative:
"We're asking volunteers and activists to be fraud busters," Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a telephone conference call, "to help stop Republicans from stealing the White House."
Torres said he's calling on party volunteers to help find the location of signature gatherers and post them on the state party's Web site "so everybody can see where they are, and we can proceed to the locations to offer rebuttals or register Democratic voters at the same time.
"Our intention is not to harass, nor to engage, nor to debate people collecting signatures," Torres added. "This is the first time I've authorized a 'do not sign' campaign, which we want to be not only non-violent but non-intrusive on anybody else's First Amendment rights."
