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Electoral college measure resuscitated?
By Kevin Yamamura - Bee Capitol Bureau
Last Updated 7:08 pm PDT Monday, October 22, 2007
Two Republican political consultants are trying to revive an initiative to change how California's electoral votes are tallied in next year's presidential election, seeking support from major GOP donors including Rep. Darrell Issa, who helped finance the 2003 gubernatorial recall.
Sacramento-based consultant Dave Gilliard, an Issa adviser, is spearheading an effort to collect at least 600,000 more signatures by mid-November for an initiative that would divvy up California's electoral college votes by congressional district. The June 2008 initiative could provide next year's Republican presidential candidate with an additional 20 or more electoral votes in Democratic-leaning California.
Qualifying the initiative at this late stage will cost at least $2 million to pay for signature gatherers. Neither Gilliard nor fundraiser Anne Dunsmore specified whom their donors will be, but Gilliard said they are seeking Issa's support. Issa was unavailable Monday for comment because he was monitoring fires in his San Diego-area district, a spokesman said.
"He's one of the people being talked to, but I can't confirm that he's involved yet," Gilliard said.
The initiative was considered all but dead last month when GOP consultant Tom Hiltachk walked away from the proposal he had filed with the state, as did spokesman Kevin Eckery. They abandoned the effort shortly after critics raised questions about a $175,000 donation the campaign received from Paul Singer, a financier of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
Gilliard said he believes there remains enough time to collect the roughly 600,000 additional signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the ballot. Eckery said Hiltachk's group collected 75,000 signatures, while Gilliard thought the number was somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000. The new campaign can use the previously collected signatures to qualify the initiative. Gilliard said he is using the same petition firm run by Gold River's Mike Arno to gather signatures.
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