Just when I was looking forward to watching a small-time butt-biter drag Rudy Giuliani through the dirt, my hopes have been shattered. The petition drive in California to get voters there to split their electoral votes between parties is gasping its last. I know. I should be elated at that development, but I have to admit I wasn't very worried that it would pass. California's a Democratic state. Why would the voters there pass anything so idiotic?
Until the last few days, the only celebrity status Charles "Chet" Hurth from Union, MO had enjoyed was for being sued ten years ago when he was a law student at St. Louis U. for biting a female law student on the butt--so hard she had to seek medical treatment. Now Hurth, the city attorney for tiny New Haven is embroiled in something that's grabbing headlines in the San Francisco Chronicle.
You're probably aware by now of the latest dirty trick the Republicans are up to, a petition initiative drive in California. They want Californians to vote in June on whether to split California's electoral votes in the 2008 presidential election by awarding electoral votes by each congressional district rather than by the winner-take-all rules that have applied.
Under its proposed district-by-district system, Kerry - who won California's popular vote in 2004 - would have received just 33 electoral votes, and Republican President Bush would have earned 22 votes - more than the number awarded in Illinois (21), Pennsylvania (21) or Ohio (20).
