The LA Times enthusiastically supports the National Popular Vote plan for California, which Common Cause and a coalition of groups have been pushing in CA and around the country.
Thanks to the electoral college, the United States holds elections in which the candidate who wins the most votes doesn't always win the presidency. Voters in some states matter much more than others, so candidates are encouraged to ignore the concerns of the less important ones and focus on those who really make a difference. That, in turn, tends to lower turnout because many voters believe their input doesn't matter. Is this any way to run a democracy?
Sidestepping the electoral college simply assures that the majority would rule in the presidential race, just as it does in every other election in this country except the one for its highest office.
The National Popular Vote bill in California is likely to get a vote in the Senate soon, and then it goes to the Governor's desk; unfortunately, Schwarzenegger vetoed it two years ago, but the Times argues for him to reconsider.
Schwarzenegger's rationale for vetoing the popular-vote bill two years ago was that it disregarded "the will of a majority of Californians" because it could award the state's electoral votes to a candidate the state's voters didn't approve. That's a very odd argument. The state's choice of a candidate is irrelevant if its pick doesn't win elsewhere.
Common Cause's Kathay Feng
Announces the Voters FIRST Redistricting
Reform Ballot Initiative
California Common Cause has worked for years to change the process by which politicians currently draw their own political districts -- a process that in effect allows politicians to choose their voters before voters can choose among politicians.
These efforts took a big step forward today with the official launch of the Voters FIRST initiative. This ballot question, filed by Common Cause, AARP, and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, will appear on the November 2008 ballot if enough Californians sign petitions to support it by next April.
Read the full text of the initiative here.
Today, the campaign received a big boost in receiving endorsements from the California League of Women Voters and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The North County Times, a California newspaper serving San Diego and Riverside Counties, reported that money can talk, especially in San Bernardino County, at all levels of government. San Bernardino's Bill Postmus spent an outrageous $2.4 million dollars on his campaign to win the seat of county assessor in his local 2006 election.
In California, where the majority of its 58 counties and 478 cities do not cap individual contributions to candidates running for local offices, special interests such as developers and casino-operators are spending thousands to buy political influence at the expense of the community.
The latest ad from California's Yes on 89 campaign is available on YouTube.
Click here to watch it now.
For anyone not familiar with election season in California, this is a pretty accurate portrayal of what it feels like to be a voter, especially when it comes to ballot measures.
Check out the latest gem from the campaign to pass California's Prop 89:
http://www.channel89.org/doughnuts/
For more info on the Clean Money and Fair Elections Initiative:
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=1877055
Hey folks. This is Matt from Common Cause New Mexico. You've heard about the national voters first pledge campaign that Common Cause is engaged in with its allies at the federal level. Common Cause chapters throughout the country are helping out with the federal campaign. But, we're also engaged in similar campaigns around our own state races.
Here in New Mexico, Common Cause kicked off its voters first pledge campaign last week by mailing out pledge forms and a cover letter to all candidates for statewide office.
Yesterday the State Senate finally upheld its promise to hold a vote on SCA 3 - redistricting reform, passing the bill with a vote of 27-11. We applaud the Senators who had the courage to stand up for
redistricting reform and give up their own power to draw districts. Or next step is to call Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (916-319-2046) to tell him the bill is not dead and he needs to schedule a hearing next week on SCA 3 - ideally, Tuesday August 22.
A quick little notice out of California - former City of Los Angeles building and safety commission chief Efren Abratique is coming under fire for voting three times to grant permits to a firm that directly benefitted his own company financially.
And now a friendly little reminder for all the local officials out there: if a vote comes before you where you have a financial stake in the outcome, the proper thing to do is to recuse yourself. I have a feeling Abratique is going to learn that lesson the hard way.
Common Blog
