The GOP’s other raw power play
A bill to change Virginia’s electoral vote system goes beyond hard-ball politics.
Add to Virginia Republican lawmakers’ anti-democracy power grab this session Sen.Bill Carrico’s legislation to apportion the state’s electoral votes by the winner in each of its heavily gerrymandered congressional districts.
Had that been the law last year, Mitt Romney would have taken nine of Virginia’s electoral votes to President Obama’s four, though Obama won the statewide vote by a comfortable margin.
January 25, 2013 - 6:19 AM
There are many reasonable arguments with many reasonable applications as to changing the formula for the awarding of the Commonwealth’s electoral college votes.
The very rational for the electoral college is to allow for republican representation by the states, rather than having largely populated areas dominating the presidential election. No different than the “house” side of federal or state legislatures.
The same such reasonable argument can be made within any given state.
The RTEB wants nothing to do with any concept that decentralizes government control, and/or enhances local autonomy.
To list just one example, we have long advocated for giving local school boards control over the academic calendar.
#2 Wow.
2 – I think the local school boards SHOULD have that control. A terrific Jeffersonian federalist argument.