The New York Times has an article which ponders whether the shenanigans behind the California electoral vote initiative portends a particularly “entertaining” presidential campaign next year.
The Giuliani link on the pro-initiative side has already been discussed in several places. However, the Clinton link on the anti-initiative side, while not surprising, is something I haven’t seen get much play at least in the blogs and media outlets I peruse.
The bulk of the $200,000 in costs for the Democratic side, including television advertisements, was paid for by Thomas F. Steyer, a California hedge fund executive who has raised at least $100,000 for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. The money for the effort against the ballot measure was donated to a committee, Californians for Fair Election Reform, created by Mr. Lehane and Mr. Steyer.[...]
The group initiated a complaint with the Federal Election Commission questioning the ties of the measure’s supporters to Mr. Giuliani, largely because Mr. Singer did not immediately reveal himself to be the donor behind the effort. The Democratic group even dug up a charge from a 17-year-old lawsuit against one official backing the initiative, a charge involving the biting of a woman’s bottom, and disseminated that as well.[...]
“Lehane did a good job of rallying the entire Democratic establishment to be vocal and aggressively against this,” said Scott Reed, a veteran Republican strategist who ran Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign. “And the gang that couldn’t shoot straight proved their worth.”
