They're Baaaaaack

They don't have much time, and they can only afford $2 a signature, but the dirty tricksters trying to steal California's electoral votes are back. Hm, that's one way to avoid the spotlight that practically the entire Democratic Party had been shining on them.

Veteran GOP consultants said Monday that they were relaunching a drive to change the way California allocates its electoral college votes, aimed at helping the 2008 Republican presidential nominee capture the White House.

Political strategist David Gilliard said he was taking over the ballot initiative campaign, along with strategist Ed Rollins and fundraiser Anne Dunsmore. Consultant Mike Arno will oversee the signature-gathering effort.

"Our budget is going to be whatever it takes to make the June ballot," said Gilliard, who played a key role in getting the recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis onto the 2003 ballot.

I think the GOP poohbahs had a consultation and realized they had nothing to lose. Of course, they're wrong. Nothing will do more to energize Democrats statewide than this ballot initiative. Prop. 187 resonated for a decade; I believe this measure has the same possibility.

And what do you know, the Giuliani connections are back, too:

Until recently, Dunsmore oversaw fundraising for Rudolph W. Giuliani's presidential campaign -- prompting Democrats to charge that the former New York mayor was behind the initiative drive. A major Giuliani benefactor, Wall Street mogul Paul E. Singer, donated $175,000 to fund the original effort.

Giuliani's campaign has denied any involvement. Gilliard said he was not associated with any of the presidential campaigns and predicted that donors to all of the major Republicans would chip in for the initiative drive.

Good, then they can all be tarred with the same brush.

The vital stats are this: they have about 3 1/2 weeks to gather about half a million more signatures to qualify for the ballot. The deadline is November 13. I used to think that this will cost so much money from the Presidential nominee that it would be a negative. Now I'm persuaded that this will be fine. We'll crush this if it gets on the ballot, all the while unifying our caucus, and that will slingshot against Republicans for years to come.