I opened my mailbox this afternoon to find something truly amazing–and something I just knew couldn’t have been for a Democratic activist like myself: an envelope from California Counts, the organization funded by Darrell Issa to resurrect the Dirty Tricks Initiative from the dead.  It turns out that, yes, the envelope was in fact directed to whatever Republican apparently dared to inhabit my apartment before my girlfriend and I arrived to dispel the traces of the dark side that must have apparently been lingering there.

Regardless, I considered it a stroke of good fortune that this thing fell into my lap–not only because it allows me an opportunity to give some insight into what they’re up to, but also because it’s downright hilarious.  More below–including a picture!

First and foremost, I have to admit that what they’re doing is rather sophisticated–the envelope contains a fundraising letter from Darrell Issa, as well as a petition to sign.  So it seems organized in that regard, though a little bit on the expensive side–collecting petition signatures through direct mail can’t be that easy a process.

The fundraising solicitation is pretty boilerplate, with the usual talking points about how it’s not a partisan initiative because Michael Dukakis got 48% of the vote in 1988 but still didn’t get any electoral votes, and how candidates have no reason to come to California, etcetera, whereas the new initiative already in use in other states (namely, the powerhouses of Maine and Nebraska)

will lead candidates to campaign in every district of California.

Of course, why it will do that is still a mystery, give the fact that most CDs in California are hopelessly gerrymandered and even if you could find one that was still in play, it’s a lot easier to stay in the East Coast and campaign in New Hampshire and Maine for 4 votes a piece than to come all the way out here to see if maybe, just maybe, you can peel off one measly EV you might not otherwise have gotten.

But I get ahead of myself.  You see, the fundraising letter makes a big deal about how the initiative is non-partisan.  And yet for some reason Darrell Issa just has to mention that he helped organize the recall of Gray Davis, and that the “liberal media” wants to convince you that the initiative has a partisan purpose.

Even at that, I may have been willing to suspend my disbelief and assume for the sake of magnanimity that California Counts really did believe in their heart of hearts that the recall was purely about accountability, and that the Dirty Tricks Initiative really is non-partisan, and that the media is just inherently liberal in its reporting that the initiative has a partisan purpose, even though it is funded by Darrell Issa, the financiers of the Swift Boat Vets, Hitachk and other well-known GOP operatives.  But the envelope that the solicitation came in kind of burst my bubble a little bit:

So basically, it’s non-partisan, it really is, except for the fact that the liberal media doesn’t think so, it’s organized by the same guy who recalled Gray Davis, and Hillary Clinton doesn’t want you to open the letter.  So other than the fact that Republicans are pushing for it and it will hurt Democrats and the media thinks it’s a dishonest piece of crap–other than that, it’s non-partisan.

It’s funny in certain ways–but very sad and simultaneously very terrifying in others–that the Republicrooks can be so hypocritical that they will contradict themselves so repeatedly and so patently in fundraising solicitations to their own supporters.  I don’t know how they live with the logical disconnect.  But then again, that’s why I’m not a Republican.  As Bill Clinton said in his speech at the Empowerment Summit at UCLA over the weekend:

I spent a long time trying to get into the reality based world, and I like it here.

I’m right with you there, Mr. President.

(cross-posted on Daily Kos)

You killed it.  All of the noise you made.  The blog posts.  The donations.  The email forwards to friends.  The petitions.  The copies of the intiative you sent to Arnold. Everything.  The netroots mobilized, and the right-wing backed down.  This is a lone bright victory, in what has been a tough couple of weeks.

Absent some big rich right-winger stepping up with $2 million in the next few days, the attempt to put an initiative on the ballot to steal 20 of California’s electoral votes is kaput.  The main Republican lawyer for the California Republican Party, and the mastermind behind this has quit.  They can’t find anyone who is not a front group established in MO to donate.  In short, the campaign is in disarray.

The campaign needed to collect at a bare minimum 433,971 valid signatures.  In reality they needed to exceed that by 2/3rds to ensure that they would make the ballot.  At last count they were only 40,000 towards getting that done.  Remember they needed to be in by November to make it.  The likelihood of them being able to recoup at this point and make it on the ballot is slim.

Courage Campaign’s Chair, Rick Jacobs wrote over at HuffPo:

As Howie Klein says,” It (‘s defeat) has more to do with the grassroots action against it, the organizing efforts of the Courage Campaign and the fact that the shady Republicans behind it, Californians For Equal Representation are a bunch of cronies of David Dreier’s from Missouri.” Paul Kumar , Vice President of SEIU’S United Healthcare Workers West, one of the online community’s best friends in labor, said, “Your work made it too hot for Schwarzenegger and other leading Republicans to handle and dried up our opponents’ access to money. The netroots was way out in front of the party regulars and big institutional players on this one and you deserve the credit for it.”

Courage Campaign and our online colleagues had support from a huge cross section of prominent leaders ranging from members of congress such as California Congressional delegation chair Zoe Lofgren, Hilda Solis and Jane Harman, members of the state legislature such as Karen Bass and Mark Leno, labor leaders such as Sal Roselli at SEIU and bloggers ranging from Arianna Huffington to John Amato and Jane Hamsher. We had folks from Hollywood such as Brad Whitford, Sherry Lansing and Judith Light as well as literally over ten thousand others.

I have to admit, this is a bittersweet day.  The thing is I know we could have beaten that initiative on the ballot.  Polling indicated that we just needed to get out our base, which we were already starting to do.  There was so much potential there for us to build a powerful new style people-powered campaign driven for and by the netroots that worked in coalition with a traditional media heavy campaign, the party and labor.  That had never been done before, but we were doing it.  We proved that it works. 

Heck today, there was an excellent diary here by Jo Etta from Show Me Progress that was digging into the shadowy MO donor connections.  I had people from MI helping with opposition research.  There were folks from all over the country on our phone call with Bradley Whitford on Monday.  It was that sort of crowd-sourcing that I was really looking forward to.  Quite honestly, we had an email all set up to go soliciting your best ideas for how to defeat this initiative.  Instead we get to celebrate… at least for this weekend.  For come Monday, it is time to get back to work.  There is too much we have yet to accomplish to let the foot off the gas pedal.

Like Rick says:

We beat the right wingnuts on this one. As the Los Angeles Times reports this morning, we demonstrated that with discipline, organization and speed we can defeat the bad stuff. As we build power, we’ll be there to support other progressives and remind those who claim to be what it really means to make progress.

Damn straight.  We take what we did here in a short amount of time and we build on it.  It’s time to play offense.  Courage Campaign is building progressive infrastructure for the long haul.  So stay tuned!

P.S. Did you see the fantastic article in today’s LAT entertainment section about Courage’s video of Josh Lyman Bradley Whitford?

Whitford admits that he usually cringes when he hears celebrities talking about politics. But, in this case, he had to get involved. “I feel like my children’s future is at stake,” he said.

He and Jacobs shot the video in his living room in an afternoon. “I realize this whole YouTube style is based on some quirky shut-in staring straight into the camera,” he said. “It’s interesting stylistically addressing the camera.”

In a way, it’s liberating. Without all the trappings of a Hollywood production, he delivered a simple message right into the lens. “You can’t out-hypocrite a Republican,” he said bluntly on the video.

Now it’s up to the YouTube audience to decide if it agrees.

“There are pendulum swings in the new media,” Whitford said. “It’s truly democratization by letting millions of individuals express themselves.”

Some expressions are bound to be more equal than others. And if Whitford’s example succeeds, there will be a lot more YouTube time in political Hollywood’s future

This is hot off the presses from the Secretary of State’s office.  The initiative is now cleared for signature gathering.  They need to collect 433,971 valid signatures by Feb 4th to get on the ballot.

I will have more on this later, but look at what Arnold said today.  Gah!  What the heck do we have to do to get the man to read it!!

“To me, what we have in place right now works … I feel like if you all the sudden in the middle of the game start changing the rules it’s kind of odd, it almost feels like a loser’s mentality, saying I cannot win with those rules, so let me change the rules. I have not made up my mind yet in one way or the other, because I haven’t seen the details on it but basically I would say there is something off with this whole idea,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.

Heh.  Nehring says blah, blah, blah and Arnold calls it “a loser’s mentality”.

Presidential Electors Initiative Enters Circulation

Presidential Electors.  Political Party

Nomination and Election by Congressional District.  Statute.

SACRAMENTO – Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced that the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for his measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions.  When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State.  The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures.  The Attorney General’s official title and summary for this measure is as follows:

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS.  POLITICAL PARTY NOMINATION AND ELECTION BY CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.  STATUTE.  Requires California to join two other states in selecting electors for president by the plurality vote in each congressional district.  Provides for political party nomination of electors pledged to vote for that party’s candidate.  Independent electors to be chosen by independent presidential candidates and also elected by congressional district.  Two at-large electors to be selected based on plurality of statewide vote for president.  Mandates that electors vote for candidate for whom they are pledged.  Eliminates $10 compensation and 5 cents per mile reimbursement of electors.  Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government:  Reduced state expenses of less than $10,000 every four years.  (Initiative 07-0032.)

The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1268 and the Attorney General’s tracking number is 07-0032.

The proponent for this measure, Thomas W. Hiltachk, must collect the signatures of 433,971 registered voters – the number equal to 5% of the total votes cast for governor in the 2006 gubernatorial election – in order to qualify the measure for the ballot.  The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for this measure, meaning the signatures must be collected by February 4, 2008.

Courage Campaign has been working hard to beat back the dirty trick initiative.  We have been collecting thousands of pledges to defeat it and sent 2,148 copies of the initiative directly to Arnold’s office.  We have a ton of other great ideas up our sleeves, but we need your support to put it into action.

Below is the email we just sent out to Courage Campaign members, including a video ask from Rick Jacobs.

[UPDATE] by Julia If folks are interested in being on our blogger listserv, so we can keep you updated on what we are up to and share things like blog badges please shoot me an email with your username and blog if you have one.

Dear juls,

A few weeks ago, a scathing New York Times editorial told you about how Republicans were springing another “elaborate dirty trick” on us – an unbelievable California ballot initiative to steal 20 electoral college votes for the Republican presidential nominee, thus hijacking the White House for four more disastrous years.

You’re outraged. And so are we. That’s why the Courage Campaign has decided enough is enough. No more dirty tricks. Not in California. Not in America.

Over 7,000 of you signed a pledge to fight this dirty trick. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger played dumb, saying he hadn’t read the ballot initiative, you sent over 2,000 copies of the initiative to him to read over the Labor Day weekend.

Now, you have a chance to send Arnold and the entire California Republican Party a loud and clear message before their convention starts this Friday: No more excuses. No more dirty tricks. No more partisan power-grabs.

To build our people-powered campaign to kill this dirty trick dead, we need you to support our 20/20 vision by this Friday’s convention: Can you contribute $20 to Courage to save 20 California electoral votes right now?

http://www.courageca…

What will twenty dollars – the price of a movie, popcorn and a soda – get you? A campaign of, by and for the netroots and grassroots.

At the YearlyKos blogger convention last month, I talked with an amazing group of online leaders – including several folks from the Calitics blogging community – about how we could defeat this dirty trick together. I left Chicago inspired and days later, we formed a “No Dirty Tricks” netroots advisory team driven by California online organizers and bloggers like Eden James, Miles Kurland, Julia Rosen, Bob Brigham, Julie Bergman Sender and Todd Beeton. Endorsements came pouring in as well from national leaders like Arianna Huffington, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, Sherry Lansing, Jane Hamsher, Eleanor Smeal and Bradley Whitford (click here to see the powerful lineup of bloggers and leaders endorsing our “No Dirty Tricks” campaign).

Courage Campaign is uniting netroots and grassroots progressives to build a people-powered online infrastructure in California that will defeat this initiative in June even as we build a winning progressive agenda. One way we’re building online infrastructure is by using and supporting ActBlue, an exciting web community tool that empowers anyone – individuals, local groups, and national organizations – to raise funds online for their favorite candidate or cause. ActBlue is campaign finance reform because it empowers each of us to democratize politics from the bottom up.

By helping the Courage Campaign defeat this dirty trick, you can also help ActBlue empower us to change the role of money in American politics. After you contribute $20 to Courage to save 20 California electoral votes, you’ll be given an option to add a small “tip” for ActBlue. A few dollars can make a big difference:

http://www.courageca…

On Wednesday, we’ll tell you much more about our plans to use ActBlue to help us build a transformative team that can turn online activism into offline action, kill this dirty trick dead, and take back the White House in 2008.

If you care deeply about building a people-powered movement to end politics as usual, we need your support right now. By contributing “20 for 20” through ActBlue, you can help us build a progressive netroots-driven organization in California that is a a model for the nation.

This is your moment.  This is your movement.  Please join with us by acting now to support  Courage Campaign before Friday’s California Republican Party convention.

Rick Jacobs
Courage Campaign

P.S. P.S. Yes, our team is working on Labor Day. I’m sure you noticed that President Bush is as well, this time in Iraq. That’s why we won’t rest until we put an end to the dirty tricks. With that in mind, I recorded this one-minute YouTube video over the weekend to talk with you about how the “Sons of Nixon” dirty tricksters are trying to steal the presidency. I hope you enjoy it.

Chris Dodd was the first Presidential candidate to speak out against the dirty tricks initiative being pushed by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s old lawyer, that could steal up to 20 electoral votes in a right-wing power grab.  Now John Edwards has gone a step further, setting up a petition to oppose the ballot initiative.  I’ve added the full text on the flip.

I’m not sure where this petition is meant to go, or why it’s only being sent to Californians – presumably everyone would be interested in stopping the Republicans from stealing the election.  But clearly, it’s interesting to see which candidates are stepping up and joining the chorus of those who want to see the next Presidential election decided fairly and free of dirty tricks.

The petition is available here.

Dear David,

There’s a partisan power grab going on in California-and we need your help today to stop it.

Republican lawyers and wealthy insiders, working behind the scenes, are trying to rig the entire national election system in favor of their presidential candidate by changing California election laws.

Under their cynical scheme, California’s Electoral College votes will be divvied up to the winner of each Congressional district, rather than following the “winner-take-all” system that is the standard in 48 states, including Republican strongholds like Texas and Utah.

Our political process badly needs reform, including public funding of campaigns, greater voter participation and less lobbyist influence in Washington. But we don’t need dirty tricks by Republicans desperate to gain and maintain the status quo.

John Edwards is asking you to join us in standing up for political fairness-and to put an end to this blatant attempt to manipulate the result of the 2008 presidential election. Join thousands of other concerned Californian’s in signing the petition opposing this ballot initiative.

link

Help us send a message to these political operatives that their Karl Rove tactics will not work. We, the people, will not allow you to get away with this naked partisan power grab.

Please sign the petition-and encourage your family and friends to sign as well. There’s power in numbers and, together, we can end the attempt by these special interests to put yet another of their own in the White House next year.

link

Thank you for your support.

(While you’re signing the Courage Pledge, think about signing the petition to get all the Prez. candidates on record about dirty tricks. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

(also up at daily kos)

That was the title of a Courage Campaign email that just went out to their list.  David Dayen (dday) and myself had the same idea, which turned into that email.  Since Arnold said last week that he hadn’t read the initiative, and therefore could not take a stance on it, we should send him a bunch of copies of the initiative.  That way he had no more excuses the next time he was asked about it.

The text of the email is below the fold.  If you have not signed the pledge to fight this please do that and send Arnold an email.  Our Facebook group is now up to 336 members and growing.

I am personally going to head up with a stack of emails to Arnold’s office later this week and hand deliver them.  Don’t worry, I will report back with all of the details.  We are working hard to marry the best of the netroots and online activism with this campaign and simultaneously build up long term progressive infrastructure in Courage Campaign.  You can support this work by donating to Courage.

Educate Arnold about the Republican attempt to steal the White House in 2008.

Dear Julia,

“In principle, I don’t like to change the rules in the middle of the game.”

That’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, actually talking common sense in Sunday’s Washington Post about an infamous Republican ballot initiative to steal twenty of California’s 55 Electoral College votes.

If a few of Arnold’s former lawyers bamboozle voters into falling for this dirty trick initiative, the 2008 presidential election will be decided on the June ballot in California – five months before the November general election. So, when asked what he thinks of the cynical double-speak of the “Presidential Electoral Reform Act,” what does Arnold say?

“I haven’t looked at the language and I’m not saying I’m against it or I’m for it or anything.”

Huh?

Why is Arnold playing dumb about this “Dirty Trick Act”? After all, Arnold knows that he could kill this right-wing California coup in its cradle by coming out against it. The initiative is public, about three pages long, and only takes about five minutes to read. So let’s educate Arnold and take action before it’s too late…

By clicking here, you can send Arnold a copy of the actual three-page initiative right now (Courage’s deadline: Thursday at noon). Then use our comment tool to tell Arnold what you think about his failure to terminate this dirty trick:

http://www.CourageCa…

When the New York Times published a scathing editorial last week calling this initiative an “elaborate dirty trick” designed by a “shadowy group” to “do serious damage to our democracy,” Courage Campaign knew it was time to act.

Not Arnold.

He has to just say “No.” Otherwise, he’s telling the dirty tricksters who stole Florida in 2000 and lied us into Iraq in 2003 to steal twenty of California’s electoral votes in 2008 – virtually guaranteeing that a Republican is our next President.

Click here and you can make sure Mr. “Post-Partisan” receives a full copy of this partisan initiative masquerading as “reform” – along with a few of your (optional) choice words for the Governor:

http://www.CourageCa…

Let’s flood Arnold’s office with copies of the three-page initiative so he doesn’t have any more excuses. With the help of our blogger friends in the netroots, we will print out your emails, blog posts, and faxes and hand-deliver them to his office in the Capitol.

While the White House hangs in the balance, Arnold is playing games. Will you stand up to him right now by sending Arnold the Dirty Trick Act with a personal note?

http://www.CourageCa…

Because of you, our campaign is catapulting the wall of the mainstream media. To keep the pressure up on Arnold and his former lawyers, we need you to respond to this message no later than Thursday at noon.

Thank you again for everything you do to support the Courage Campaign and its “No Dirty Tricks” campaign to protect California’s Electoral College votes.

Rick Jacobs,
Courage Campaign

P.S. Given how long – and important – this battle will be to the future of America, Courage Campaign needs your financial support to take the fight to the Republicans today. Will you chip in whatever you can afford right now to our campaign for change?

http://www.CourageCa…