FLASHBACK: Republicans Opposed Electoral Vote Rigging In 2004, Calling It ‘A Really S

[TruthOut10]

FLASHBACK: Republicans Opposed Electoral Vote Rigging In 2004, Calling It ‘A Really Stupid Idea’

Nearly a decade before the GOP responded to President Obama’s re-election by proposing to rig the Electoral College in states like Pennsylvania and Virginia, Republicans vehemently opposed the plan and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting its implementation.

In 2004, when Colorado was still a red state and then-President Bush was locked in a tight race with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the state had a ballot initiative that would have shifted its allocation of electoral votes from winner-take-all to proportional. Under the proposal, for example, even if Bush had won 60 percent of the vote, he still would only get 5 of the state’s 9 electoral votes instead of all 9.

However, the proposed Electoral College rig ended up getting trounced for one reason: Republicans strongly opposed the idea.

The push against Amendment 36, which failed by a 2-to-1 margin, was led by Republican Gov. Bill Owens, who lambasted the idea as a “transparently partisan movement”. Owens detailed his opposition in a USA Today op-ed:

FLASHBACK: Republicans Opposed Electoral Vote Rigging In 2004, Calling It 'A Really Stupid Idea' | ThinkProgress

 

[TruthOut10]

Plan would hurt small states

There's a transparently partisan movement afoot in Colorado to distribute our Electoral College votes proportionately. The goal? To give John Kerry a four-vote Electoral College boost, putting him ahead of President Bush in a close election.

But that in and of itself is not the reason proposed Amendment 36 on the Nov. 2 ballot is bad for Colorado. The fact is that if Amendment 36 passed, it would forever make it easy for presidential candidates to ignore Colorado, since our state would be an Electoral College "lone ranger" among states.

Amendment 36 is bad for Colorado, which is no doubt why it's being bankrolled by out-of-state interests. The man behind Amendment 36 is J. Jorge Klor de Alva, a multimillionaire who currently lives in Brazil. Klor de Alva could just as easily have pushed this scheme in his former home state of California — a state that will only grow in influence if small states such as Colorado surrender their Electoral College edge. It's no coincidence that he didn't, however: Ending the winner-take-all system in California would help Bush more than Kerry, which defeats Klor de Alva's purpose.

The Electoral College was established for a very good reason: to protect the broad interests of all 50 states in the union, rather than merely those of highly populous states. Unfortunately, the Electoral College is also easily demagogued. Like so many bad ideas, reform sounds good to many on its face, but on closer look proves disastrous.

USATODAY.com - Plan would hurt small states

 

[asterism]

FLASHBACK: Republicans Opposed Electoral Vote Rigging In 2004, Calling It ‘A Really Stupid Idea’

Nearly a decade before the GOP responded to President Obama’s re-election by proposing to rig the Electoral College in states like Pennsylvania and Virginia, Republicans vehemently opposed the plan and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting its implementation.

In 2004, when Colorado was still a red state and then-President Bush was locked in a tight race with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the state had a ballot initiative that would have shifted its allocation of electoral votes from winner-take-all to proportional. Under the proposal, for example, even if Bush had won 60 percent of the vote, he still would only get 5 of the state’s 9 electoral votes instead of all 9.

However, the proposed Electoral College rig ended up getting trounced for one reason: Republicans strongly opposed the idea.

The push against Amendment 36, which failed by a 2-to-1 margin, was led by Republican Gov. Bill Owens, who lambasted the idea as a “transparently partisan movement”. Owens detailed his opposition in a USA Today op-ed:

FLASHBACK: Republicans Opposed Electoral Vote Rigging In 2004, Calling It 'A Really Stupid Idea' | ThinkProgress

So it's bad now because Republicans are doing it but it was okay when Democrats tried?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

FLASHBACK: Republicans Opposed Electoral Vote Rigging In 2004, Calling It ‘A Really Stupid Idea’

Nearly a decade before the GOP responded to President Obama’s re-election by proposing to rig the Electoral College in states like Pennsylvania and Virginia, Republicans vehemently opposed the plan and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting its implementation.

In 2004, when Colorado was still a red state and then-President Bush was locked in a tight race with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the state had a ballot initiative that would have shifted its allocation of electoral votes from winner-take-all to proportional. Under the proposal, for example, even if Bush had won 60 percent of the vote, he still would only get 5 of the state’s 9 electoral votes instead of all 9.

However, the proposed Electoral College rig ended up getting trounced for one reason: Republicans strongly opposed the idea.

The push against Amendment 36, which failed by a 2-to-1 margin, was led by Republican Gov. Bill Owens, who lambasted the idea as a “transparently partisan movement”. Owens detailed his opposition in a USA Today op-ed:

FLASHBACK: Republicans Opposed Electoral Vote Rigging In 2004, Calling It 'A Really Stupid Idea' | ThinkProgress

I guess I was right, you now see it is a good idea if it benefits Democrats.

 

[Oddball]

Flashback: Nancy Pigloski, along with the rest of her congressional socialist glee club, thought that "paygo' was the greatest idea since pizza and beer idea during the Chimpola regime...Nowadays, not so much.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss....

 

[1Templar]

Stupid is as stupid does.