I bet they haven't given up. We shouldn't let our guard down. Maybe I am paranoid, but there is no way they are giving up that easily.

But, maybe we can coin a new phrase. Republican ass biters?

And I agree with you Mole. What I want to know is why someone who lives in Mo would try to get this on the ballot in California.

Republicans would bite off the head that feeds them and they do it every day.

A close friend and major fundraiser of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has identified himself as the mystery financer of the proposed California initiative to apportion the state's 55 electoral votes by congressional district instead of winner-take-all.
He is New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. He said he provided the $175,000 to initially finance the petition drive to get the measure on the June 2008 ballot. But as The Times' Dan Morain revealed in an exclusive story on this website last night, the drive has foundered on internal disputes and lack of further financing.

The petition drive's backers had remained a mystery since the effort was first revealed here in a July Top of the Ticket item. Democratic critics portrayed it as a power grab to wrest away some of the state's electoral votes, which have all gone to the Democratic candidates for the past four presidential elections. Some 19 of the state's 53 congressional districts would seem likely to vote for a GOP presidential candidate, enough to swing some recent national elections.

A Giuliani campaign spokeswoman, Maria Comella, said today that Singer's donation "was completely independent from our campaign."

Singer oversees Elliott Associates, an $8 billion investment fund. He is also chairman of Giuliani's northeast fundraising operation that produced a third of the New Yorker's $33.5 million campaign war chest in the first six months of 2007. Singer and his employees have donated at least $182,000 to the Giuliani campaign so far this year.

"I made the contribution without any restrictions," Singer's statement said. Some Democrats have threatened legal action, complaining that federal campaign finance laws were violated if the Giuliani campaign was involved.

to me about this story is that the director and the PR person for the campaign to place the initiative on the ballot both resigned when they learned where the money came from! Could they actually be Republicans with integrity? Or maybe they're Romney guys.

Whatever, the important thing is that this sneaky trick is, for all intents, dead in the water. It wasn't getting traction with the voters, and even Arnold saw it as not playing fair. It was probably also unconstitutional based on the California State Constitution.

This will save the Democrats a whole lot of money and effort better used elsewhere. Now all we have to do is keep a sharp eye out for the next dirty trick.