PA looking to change electoral vote distribution

[BlueHen86]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/polit ... 28053.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I don't like this at all. I think it hurts the state and there's no guarantee that it helps the GOP.

Currently PA is a winner take all state with 20 electoral votes. The new plan would award a vote to the winner of each of the 18 Congressional districts with the remaining 2 votes going to the overall vote getter.

Right now there are 12 majority GOP districts, 6 majority Dem districts. Nobody is going to campaign in PA for 2 electoral votes.

The Dems have won PA every year since 1988, the GOP seems to be giving up on winning the state so they are hedging their bets at the expense of what is good for the state. Of course, this move backfires if the GOP does win PA in 2012.

The ultimate irony would be if the GOP wins PA in 2012, but Obama wins a close election because he 6 gets electoral votes that he would not have gotten without this change.

[TwinTownBisonFan]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/polit ... 28053.html

I don't like this at all. I think it hurts the state and there's no guarantee that it helps the GOP.

Currently PA is a winner take all state with 20 electoral votes. The new plan would award a vote to the winner of each of the 18 Congressional districts with the remaining 2 votes going to the overall vote getter.

Right now there are 12 majority GOP districts, 6 majority Dem districts. Nobody is going to campaign in PA for 2 electoral votes.

The Dems have won PA every year since 1988, the GOP seems to be giving up on winning the state so they are hedging their bets at the expense of what is good for the state. Of course, this move backfires if the GOP does win PA in 2012.

The ultimate irony would be if the GOP wins PA in 2012, but Obama wins a close election because he 6 gets electoral votes that he would not have gotten without this change.

This is asinine - and not because it's being done to hurt Obama... it's asinine because of how unbelievably and transparently shortsighted and hacky it is.

This is the kind of thing we'd joke about doing at the bar... but not really mean it. I'd be equally unhappy if say... Texas or Louisiana or Georgia Dems did something like this - it's petty and stupid. Nebraska GOPers tried to undue their states' system of allocation in reverse in '08 because Obama was poised to win the Omaha district (he did)... that was also stupid.

I'm not saying it's stupid to believe in this as a principle - but that's not what this is - it's shameless and trite and brazenly hacky...

[BlueHen86]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/polit ... 28053.html

I don't like this at all. I think it hurts the state and there's no guarantee that it helps the GOP.

Currently PA is a winner take all state with 20 electoral votes. The new plan would award a vote to the winner of each of the 18 Congressional districts with the remaining 2 votes going to the overall vote getter.

Right now there are 12 majority GOP districts, 6 majority Dem districts. Nobody is going to campaign in PA for 2 electoral votes.

The Dems have won PA every year since 1988, the GOP seems to be giving up on winning the state so they are hedging their bets at the expense of what is good for the state. Of course, this move backfires if the GOP does win PA in 2012.

The ultimate irony would be if the GOP wins PA in 2012, but Obama wins a close election because he 6 gets electoral votes that he would not have gotten without this change.

This is asinine - and not because it's being done to hurt Obama... it's asinine because of how unbelievably and transparently shortsighted and hacky it is.

This is the kind of thing we'd joke about doing at the bar... but not really mean it. I'd be equally unhappy if say... Texas or Louisiana or Georgia Dems did something like this - it's petty and stupid. Nebraska GOPers tried to undue their states' system of allocation in reverse in '08 because Obama was poised to win the Omaha district (he did)... that was also stupid.

I'm not saying it's stupid to believe in this as a principle - but that's not what this is - it's shameless and trite and brazenly hacky...

Brazenly hacky is exactly right. It's a short sighted attempt at hurting Obama, but it's not in the best interest of the state. They are putting the party ahead of the state.

I'd be for it, but only if every state did it. As it is, nobody will bother to campaign in PA for 2 or 3 electoral votes when they can go to NY, NJ and Ohio and get more.