Ezra Klein on Big money, small issues. Tom Golisano is "apparently bankrolling efforts to implement the National Popular Vote plan, a work-around meant to abolish the Electoral College without amending the Constitution. The idea is to have states representing the 270 electoral votes needed to win a presidential election pledge to assign their votes to the winner of the popular vote. A good number of states have passed laws implementing the plan already, but several more would need to sign on for it to take effect."
"That's actually one of the most interesting results I could see coming out of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. Obviously, congressional and presidential elections are higher profile, but they're also very expensive, which limits the bang wealthy or corporate donors can get for their buck. State and local races are small enough that a decent-size expenditure by an outside party could be decisive. This has already happened to some degree in West Virginia, where coal mogul Don Blankenship spent a few million dollars to get a pro-coal state Supreme Court. So instead of seeing wealthy donors spend millions to get "their man" elected to the Senate or House, I expect projects like this, in which the donor cares about a single issue and the cost to back each candidate is low, so electing enough allies to pass the pet bill in question is affordable."
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