Two and a half weeks ago, Jamison Foser wrote:

There are, in short, very few things more significant to the outcome of next year’s presidential election than this California ballot initiative. It is, then, vitally important that the media thoroughly, accurately, and fairly cover this fight — and not just the California media — the national media as well. The initiative may appear only on the California ballot, but it will impact the entire nation, and the campaigns for and against it will no doubt be waged with the help of national donors, activists, and operatives.

The initiative is beginning to draw significant media attention, but much of that coverage has been lacking.

Michael R. Blood of the Associated Press seemed to miss the memo…

In a September 9 Associated Press article on the California Republican Party state convention, AP political writer Michael R. Blood reported that “Republicans at the convention also endorsed a proposed ballot initiative to change the way the state awards electoral votes in presidential contests,” but he did not note that the initiative was originally proposed by a lawyer with deep ties to the state GOP. Blood also did not report any Democratic criticism of the proposed initiative, which, as he noted, would award two electoral votes to the winner of the statewide vote and divide the rest among the winners of California’s congressional districts.

Sacramento attorney Thomas Hiltachk, the managing partner of Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, submitted the ballot measure to the California attorney general’s office on July 17. Hiltachk has served as legal counsel to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), and Bell McAndrews’ senior partner, Charles H. Bell Jr., is general counsel to the California Republican Party.

Hiltachk has played a role in several Republican campaigns to pass ballot initiatives that would benefit that party. He served as counsel to Ted Costa, the former chairman of the Sacramento County Republican Central Committee who filed the petition seeking the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis (D). Hiltachk also represented and served as a spokesman for Rescue California, a ballot-measure committee that spent $3.6 million promoting the recall initiative. The Sacramento Bee reported in a July 1, 2004, article that Rescue California “gathered 1.3 million of the signatures that got the measure on the October 2003 ballot.” On October 7, 2003, Davis was recalled from office and replaced by Schwarzenegger. Hiltachk also served as treasurer of Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Recovery Team, a ballot-initiative committee that supported measures to mandate judicial redistricting of California’s congressional districts and require employee consent for the use of union dues for political purposes.

Blood scored bonus points for not pointing out the fact that the initiative has been bashed by pretty much every single editorial board in the state which realize it is a blatant dirty trick designed to keep Republican control of the White House despite the fact the voters hate the Republican Party.

To put that in context with what is in the news today, that means that this initiative is designed to ensure we are stuck in Iraq forever. Blood didn’t mention that either.

Ouch.