National GOP chair: Pa. electoral-vote plan is ‘state issue’

HARRISBURG - There are races for judgeships, county and municipal offices on the Nov. 8 ballot in Pennsylvania, but the ritual admonition to "focus only on the next election" did not carry much weight Friday night at the fall dinner of the state Republican Party.

In the halls of the Harrisburg Hilton, the talk was almost all 2012 presidential politics all the time. Dominating the buzz: internal disagreement over the bold plan by state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) to do away with the winner-take-all system of awarding the state's 20 electoral votes.

Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus, the keynote speaker at the event, said he was neutral on the plan, though party insiders say he has privately counseled against it.

"It's a state issue, for the state to decide," Priebus told reporters before his speech. "I have our sights set on winning 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania, no matter what happens" with the proposal.

Under the plan, which is backed by Gov. Corbett, 18 votes would be parceled out to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in each congressional district, and two votes would go to the statewide winner. The plan would take advantage of the many heavily Republican rural districts in Pennsylvania, potentially boosting the party's presidential nominee in a state carried by the Democrats since 1992.

Presidential politics was also highlighted at Friday's dinner as the state committee held a straw poll. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who is lagging in opinion polls in the Republican race, won with 138 votes, or 36 percent. Mitt Romney took 98 votes, or 25 percent, to Rick Perry's 71 votes, or 18 percent.

Santorum had home-state pride at stake. He has argued that his ability to get elected as a committed conservative means he'd be the strongest nominee.

"This race is wide open and we should not let the national media pick the candidates," Karen Santorum, who spoke for her husband, told the crowd of several hundred.

The electoral-vote proposal has stirred up concern and opposition from national Republican Party officials, state chairman Rob Gleason, and members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation.

Gleason softened his tone Friday, saying he wanted to see the legislative process take its course and to consult with state committee members. Still, he did not disavow comments he made to Politico Wednesday blasting the plan.

"We would no longer be a battleground state with all the benefits that come with that," he said then. "It would affect us all the way down the ticket. We're gonna win the presidency here anyway, so why we would do this now, when we're at the top of the heap, is beyond me."

With statewide vote totals no longer as relevant, the concern is that Democrats would move get-out-the-vote efforts from true-blue Philadelphia and Pittsburgh into the more moderate suburbs, imperiling Republican members of Congress there. Those would include Republican Reps. Michael Fitzpatrick, in the Eighth District centered in Bucks County; Charlie Dent in the Lehigh Valley's 15th District; Patrick Meehan in the Seventh, and Jim Gerlach in the Sixth.

"We should move cautiously and in a transparent manner," Fitzpatrick said in an interview, adding, "There could be unintended consequences." He said he looked forward to public hearings.

Gerlach said in a statement: "Our Pennsylvania Republican delegation continues to evaluate this proposal with the hope that we can find a way to satisfy the bill's proponents' goals while, at the same time, not unduly risking the future of our hard-fought and hard-won congressional districts."

And Meehan, through a spokeswoman, said, "My initial reaction is to question this proposal, but I would like to hear more about it."

The proposal is causing some heartburn among the GOP congressmen, who discussed it over breakfast Thursday and invited Corbett down to explain it to them next week in Washington.

Republican operatives who support the Pileggi plan say that the supposed negative effects on the party's congressional candidates is exaggerated, voicing doubts that Democrats would spend big to garner four electoral votes in the swing districts when there would be bigger prizes elsewhere in the country. Obama and the Democrats also would still have to run TV ads in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Plus, supporters argue, in presidential-election years the plan would help the party's candidates for statewide offices such as auditor general and treasurer, whose campaigns get drowned out by the presidential one.

Democratic political consultant Ken Smukler, based in Villanova, said his party would probably blast the swing districts with direct mail, phone banks and other spending to persuade voters and turn out for Obama.

"It would change the formula for them - all of a sudden there would be all this GOTV [get out the vote] and persuasion money in the congressional districts and nothing in Philadelphia," Smukler said. "If you're Fitzpatrick, Meehan and Gerlach, it's a threat."