Seen in a CQPolitics article discussing the latest on the California electoral vote ballot initiative, which as you may recall would cause California’s electoral votes to be allocated by Congressional District, turning a blue state purple:
Californians for Fair Election Reform is airing two radio ads in Sacramento and Los Angeles with the message: “Dividing California’s electoral votes only hurts Californians.” One radio ad claims a vote in support of the initiative will hand a Republican the presidency and thereby prolong the war in Iraq. The other radio ad argues that the initiative will reduce California’s voting influence. The group also has released a Web ad they expect to air on television.
It’s a shame that someone hasn’t gotten the National Popular Vote concept out as a ballot initiative in California to compete with the GOP-sponsored plan. While I have concerns about moving to simple popular vote (the saving graces of the Electoral College are that a President has to have a broad base of support in terms of geography, and that a Constitutional mechanism exists for Congress to intervene if there is funny business at the state level), the proposal at least has the good idea of tying its activation to achieving critical mass among the various states, while appealing to the populist idea that a majority vote-getter should be the winner of an election.