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    California Electoral Vote Plan Won't Make June Ballot
    By Dan Morain
    The Los Angeles Times

    Friday 07 December 2007

    A proposed initiative that drew national attention for its potential to affect the 2008 presidential election will not appear on the June ballot, organizers said Thursday.

    Republican backers of the measure, which could have titled the presidential contest toward the GOP nominee by changing how California awards electoral votes, conceded that they were unable to raise sufficient money.

    Sacramento consultant Dave Gilliard, the campaign manager, said that even if a financial angel were to shower the campaign with $1 million, there is not enough time to qualify the measure for June.

    "I was surprised that more people that finance these types of efforts didn't step forward," Gilliard said. "We had strong supporters and good supporters but didn't come anywhere close to making the budget."

    Deadlines passed last week for submitting petitions to elections officials, who would have determined whether supporters had gathered the necessary 434,000 signatures of registered voters. Typically, gathering enough signatures costs about $2 million; organizers must overshoot their mark to allow for invalid names.

    Gilliard said proponents held out hope that the measure could appear on the November ballot, with the presidential contest. But he said that was a dicey scenario: Even if it were on that ballot and won voter approval, it might not affect the 2008 election.

    The initiative might not kick in until 2012, Gilliard said - adding that courts likely would decide the question.

    The proposal would replace California's winner-take-all system of appropriating its 55 electoral votes, awarding them instead by which candidate wins individual congressional districts.

    Republicans hold 19 congressional seats in California, suggesting the GOP presidential candidate could win at least 19 electors here -almost the equivalent of Ohio's.

    Democratic National Party Chairman Howard Dean has said Democrats could not win the White House without capturing all of California's 55 electoral votes, which are more than 10 percent of the 538 electoral votes nationally.

    Although confident they could have defeated it, Democrats said they were relieved that the measure would not appear in June.

    "This effort to rig the presidential elections demonstrates that the Republicans ... recognize that they will be a minority party if they lose the White House and will do everything they can to hold on to power," said Democrat Chris Lehane, who helped organize the opposition.

    He said Democrats plan to push alternative proposals in various states that would bypass the Electoral College altogether and elect presidents by a national popular vote.

    The Electoral College measure first ran into trouble in October when the original proponent, Sacramento attorney Tom Hiltachk, abandoned the campaign. He and his team raised only $175,000. After Hiltachk dropped the measure, Gilliard took it up, vowing to raise $2 million and enlisting the support of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a longtime client.

    Issa donated $100,000, the California Republican Party gave $150,000 and Orange County Lincoln Club, an organization of Republican contributors, chipped in $75,000. Several other Republican stalwarts gave five- and four-figure checks. But donations have totaled about $1.3 million, well short of the mark.

    "Raising money is proving to be a lot more difficult than was anticipated," Gilliard said.

    Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had expressed skepticism about the measure. And Democrats had mounted an aggressive effort to block it, filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that backers of Republican candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani violated federal regulations by supporting the proposal.

    New York hedge fund owner Paul E. Singer, one of Giuliani's largest fundraisers, had seeded the initiative with the original $175,000 donation.