Curses, foiled again

Crooks and Liars:

For a while, the Republican electoral-vote scheme in California seemed like a fairly serious effort, and certainly something to keep an eye on. Fortunately, at least for now, it’s dead.

If you’re just joining us, it was quite a clever little scam: the state GOP, far-right activists, and Swiftboat financiers, under the guise of “fairness,” wanted to split California’s 55 electoral votes by congressional district, as opposed to the current winner-take-all system. There’s no real mystery behind the effort — the goal is to deny Dems about 20 fairly reliable electoral votes, making it difficult for the party to win a presidential election.

As of last fall, the initiative was in deep trouble. But before we could move on to other matter, some members of Rudy Giuliani’s team intervened, relaunched the effort, and eyed the November ballot.

I’m pleased to note that the whole effort, sometimes called “California Counts,” was a flop.

Proponents of a controversial proposed ballot measure that would have reallocated California’s electoral college votes by congressional district — instead of the current winner-take-all system — have abandoned their effort.

“It’s not going to make the ballot this year,” said David Gilliard, a Republican political strategist organizing the campaign. “The money never materialized to put it on the ballot.”

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