Lafayette man wants Congress to investigate whether White House sought ballot initiative to change system ... to benefit Republican elections

Attorney seeks probe of electoral vote plan | By Steven Harmon | MEDIANEWS SACRAMENTO BUREAU | Article Launched: 09/08/2007 03:04:50 AM PDT

# Lafayette man wants Congress to investigate whether White House sought ballot initiative to change system

SACRAMENTO -- A Lafayette attorney who specializes in election law is seeking a Congressional investigation into whether the White House was involved in pushing a California ballot initiative to change the way the state allocates its electoral votes.
...
But the idea had been around since at least 2002, when Sacramento GOP attorney Tom Hiltachk and others approached the Republican National Committee that year, asking if they'd like them to pursue such an initiative. But Bush's political team decided against it, confident he could win without it, according to Rob Stutzman, a California Republican consultant familiar with the discussions -- who dismissed their significance.

"This is quite funny," Stutzman said. "There is no grand conspiracy. This is the idea of a Republican attorney in California. This FOIA effort is all politics, trying to tie the Bush White House to the initiative. There's no there there because the proprietors of the initiative are California Republicans."

Opponents say they're particularly interested in a 2002 memo written by the RNC to Karl Rove, the former White House political advisor to President Bush, discussing the 2004 presidential election.

"We do have information indicating that a meeting did take place involving high level White House aides, including Karl Rove, in the context of the 2004 election," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant and spokesman for Californians for Fair Election Reform. "This initiative seems to be a byproduct of these discussions. It's important to find out who discussed it, why, and where this information came from."