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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Nebraska As Kingmaker, Role Model

MyDD‘s Jonathan Singer flags a Poblano post discussing a scenario in which, Nebraska, as one of two states (yes, Maine is the other) that do not have the anti-democratic winner-take-all system of allocating electoral votes, could actually cast the decisive electoral vote that puts Obama in the White House.
It’s an unlikely scenario, admittedly, since Dems haven’t won a Nebraska electoral vote since LBJ. But it is not an implausible one. Although McCain is up 11 points state-wide in a new Rasmussen poll, Poblano and Singer crunch the poll numbers, including the 2004 election data, and see Obama running close to even in NE’s 2nd district (Omaha), with an outside chance to take NE-1 (Eastern Nebraska). Poblano then plugs these potential wins into one plausible scenario, and voila, Nebraska is a king-maker.
In any event, hats off to Nebraska and Maine for rejecting the winner-take-all electoral votes system — which ought to be a high priority for democracy-loving state legislatures everywhere. Plaudits to NE, also, for their unicameral state legislature, arguably more democratic with a small “d.” Now, if Nebraskans will just vote right in November…
Photo Alert: Campaign ’08 is not likely to produce more glorious photographs from a Democratic perspective than the shots of the huge Obama rally (75K) at Portland’s gorgeous Waterfront Park (See here, here and here.).

One comment on “Nebraska As Kingmaker, Role Model

  1. strings on

    I don’t think it is true that awarding electoral votes by Congressional district is more democratic than the current system. It would just replicate the current system in an odd way. All the action would occur in swing districts rather than swing states. Only a small fraction of the public lives in swing districts just as only a few of us live in swing states.
    More democratic would be for states to award their electoral votes by proportional representation. But best of all, by far, is to abolish the Electoral College and use the popular vote.

    Reply

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