Oh my: Pennsylvania weighing bill to allocate electoral votes by congressional district

Hot Air ^ | 13 Sep 2011 | Allahpundit

[SoJoCo]

This would be a disaster for Democrats. Democrats don’t win Pennsylvania, they win the Philadelphia area by such a huge margin that the rest of the state comes along. This would end that.

[expatpat]

You have a point, but I think you are underestimating the importance of the big-city fraud to the current Dem numbers for the Senate.

[Vigilanteman]

The Democrats may end up supporting this plan in order to salvage a few electoral votes for Obama next year.

Which is why now is exactly the right time to push this plan through. The RAT pack is only thinking of the next election, this plan makes Pennsylvania highly competitive for the forseeable future, not just in a year when we have the worst president since James Buchanan.

Buchanan was, incidentally, the last and only Pennsylvanian to hold the office and our first gay president.

[sargon]

Oh really, Buchanan was gay?

Link, please?

[Vigilanteman]

At the present time, Pennsylvania has seven highly competitive congressional districts plus another five which can be competitive under certain conditions. Add the two votes for winning the state to the mix and you have 14 electoral votes which are very much in play. Subtract the six for the safe seats and you still have a net gain of eight electoral votes possible, something well worth fighting over.

Just look up the amount of advertising cash spent and number of candidate visits to states like Iowa (6), New Mexico (5) and Colorado (9) to get an idea.

Yeah, we might get a few dozen fewer phone calls or mailers stuffed in our boxes. But I think most of us in the Commonwealth could live with that. For the most part, we aren't attention whores like New Hampshire or Iowa.

[Vigilanteman]

Start with his bio in Wikipedia, read those links, Google others and then decide for yourself.

I'm still not 100% convinced, but I am about 98% there. While being gay was definitely NOT cool in 1856, there were a lot more ways to hide it than there are today.

The museum staff at Buchanan's home at Wheatland, Pennsylvania used to flat out deny that he was gay. Now, they will at least consider that possibility. Whether this has to do with research which has since come to light or the political correctness which has made gay into the new cool in some parts of our society, I can not say.

But nothing in Buchanan's relationship with Rufus King has done anything to diminish the suspicions in the 150 years since he left office.

[PapaBear3625]

But Democrats, who have carried the state in presidential contests since 1992, said the shift would erode Pennsylvania’s clout…

No, it would mean that a candidate would have to appeal to ALL of Pennsylvania, not just Philadelphia, to get the EVs.

If other states with big liberal cities, but with conservative suburban and rural districts, did the same, it would cripple the Dem party for decades.

[sargon]

Thanks. I read the Wikipedia info, and after having reviewed that, it certainly seems possible that Buchanan was gay...

[MrB]

Yep, they’d get ONE guaranteed EV for that district.

This will drive the national popular vote crowd nuts, because it is the exact OPPOSITE of what they want to do - have New York City, LA, and Chicago determine who is president for the whole country.

[Vigilanteman]

This will drive the national popular vote crowd nuts, because it is the exact OPPOSITE of what they want to do . . .

You have just summarized the best argument for enacting this thing!

Incidentally, neither Canada, Japan nor any of the European Parliamentary Democracies pick their national leaders by direct popular vote-- their elected representatives serve exactly the same role as our presidential electors in this selection. We American have an even more democratic system in that we can vote for presidential electors and representatives from opposite political parties.

[Tatze]

"But Democrats, who have carried the state in presidential contests since 1992, said the shift would erode Pennsylvania’s clout… "

Where do these same Democrats stand on the National Popular Vote movement?? I would bet they support it! Hypocrites!!!

[Joe 6-pack]

In the case of PA, it means that Pittsburgh and Philly will not be a millstone around the rest of the state.

[Alberta's Child]

I didn't really underestimate the fraud at all -- in fact, I think we agree on that. I'm just pointing out that a district-based system only insulates the fraud to a certain degree -- for the district-based electoral votes only -- by limiting it to those heavily Democratic urban districts. The proposed system in Pennsylvania would still award two electoral votes to the candidate with the most statewide popular votes, so the fraud would still be a factor in who gets those two statewide electoral votes.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi is trying to gather support to change the state’s “winner-takes-all” approach for awarding electoral votes. Instead, he’s suggesting that Pennsylvania dole them out based on which candidate wins each of the 18 congressional districts, with the final two going to the contender with the most votes statewide.

[Alberta's Child]

That's a good point. One thing this sort of system would do is reduce the importance of state borders in a presidential election. Two electoral votes would still be awarded on a statewide basis, but for the Congressional districts you'd likely find that voters have more in common with voters in a neighboring state than they do with many voters in their own state. The presidential candidate who wins the district in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, for example, is likely to be the same one who wins in the neighboring region of West Virginia.

The results of the 2008 election, as shown by Congressional district, illustrate some pretty clear geographic patterns:

Look how many "red" districts there were in key states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana that went for Obama. McCain even won several districts in Obama's home state of Illinois (and vice versa, with Arizona).