In a December 1 article on a controversial Republican-backed California ballot initiative that would award the state's electoral votes by congressional district, the Los Angeles Times reported that "[s]upporters portray" the proposal “as a way to make California's elections fair,” but did not report why, according to opponents of the initiative, it would not “make California's elections fair.” As Media Matters for America has documented, opponents of the measure have noted that it would reapportion the electoral votes of only California, rather than applying a nationwide standard for the distribution of electoral votes, and that it would give California voters less influence on the outcome of national elections because it would make it virtually impossible for the state to award 55 electoral votes to its winner, as it does under the current winner-take-all system. Further, while the Times reported that "[t]he idea of altering California's system has been discussed within Republican circles for years," the article did not note that several of the key initiative supporters it named are prominent Republicans, or that the initiative was endorsed by the party's state convention.

While the Times quoted campaign manager Dave Gilliard's assertions regarding his campaign to gather the 434,000 signatures needed to put the initiative on the ballot, it did not note that Gilliard is a Republican consultant. Gilliard is in fact a partner with the political consulting firm Gilliard, Blanning, Wysocki & Associates, whose clients include the National Republican Congressional Committee, the California Republican Party, and eight Republican congressmen. His biography on the firm's website notes that Gilliard “formed Rescue California, the group that led the successful drive to qualify a recall election against Governor Gray Davis [D].”

Similarly, the Times identified the “author” of the initiative as “Sacramento attorney Thomas Hiltachk.” In fact, as Media Matters documented, Hiltachk is managing partner of Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk and formerly served as legal counsel to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). Bell, McAndrews senior partner Charles H. Bell Jr. is general counsel to the California Republican Party. Hiltachk has also played a role in several Republican campaigns to pass ballot initiatives that would benefit that party, including the initiative to recall Davis.

Further, the Times noted that the campaign in support of the initiative received a $175,000 contribution from “Wall Street mogul Paul E. Singer,” but did not report that Singer is a “close friend and major fundraiser of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani,” and "chairman of Giuliani's northeast fundraising operation," as Andrew Malcolm reported on the Times' political blog, “Top of the Ticket.”

From the December 1 Los Angeles Times article:

As deadlines came and went, backers of an initiative that could affect the 2008 presidential election continued struggling Friday to gather enough signatures to place the measure before voters.

Organizers had set this week as a deadline for wrapping up their petition drive, but said they had not raised the roughly $2 million needed to pay petition circulators. Secretary of State Debra Bowen had recommended a deadline of Nov. 29.

Campaign manager Dave Gilliard said that agents would work through the weekend to obtain the 434,000 valid signatures required to put the Electoral College initiative on next June's ballot and that he expected to submit the names by midweek.

Gilliard was less than certain that he would reach his goal of 700,000 names, a number allowing leeway for signatures that might be disqualified.

“We won't know until they're collected,” he said.

The proposed initiative would alter California's winner-take-all system of awarding its 55 electoral votes. Instead, electors would be allocated based on which candidate captured majorities in individual congressional districts.

[...]

The initiative has attracted interest among presidential campaigns because of its national implications.

Democratic National Party Chairman Howard Dean has said that Democrats could not win the White House without winning all California's 55 electoral votes. This state accounts for more than 10% of the 538 electoral votes nationally, by far the biggest block of any state.

Backers have said that if they failed to qualify the Electoral College measure for June, they would try to place it on the November 2008 ballot. It is unclear what that would mean for that month's presidential election.

The Electoral College initiative has had a troubled past. Its original campaign team, including its author, Sacramento attorney Thomas Hiltachk, abandoned the measure in October.

Hiltachk and his team had been unable to raise sufficient money. Hiltachk also became angry when the one donation he received -- $175,000 from Wall Street mogul Paul E. Singer -- took a circuitous route through a Missouri attorney and a hitherto unknown corporation. That route hid, at least for a time, the true source of the contribution.

The measure itself is relatively simple, taking fewer than four pages. Supporters portray it as a way to make California's elections fair.

The idea of altering California's system has been discussed within Republican circles for years.

It became so serious in the 2004 campaign that California Republicans approached the Republican National Committee about it.

But the GOP and President Bush's political team concluded that Bush could win the election without the added boost that such a move would bring.