The ballot measure that would split Colorado's nine electoral votes proportionate to the popular vote is largely financed by somebody who may never have set foot in the state: Jorge Klor de Alva, a rich Californian who heads a university (Faculdade Pitagoras) in Brazil.
Since President Bush is expected to defeat Sen. John Kerry in Colorado, the ballot proposition favors the Democrats. Bush would get five, not nine, electoral votes, a system in 2000 that would have elected Al Gore by three electoral votes.
Nevertheless, Colorado Democrats as well as Republicans oppose the change for long-term reasons. Politicians of both parties say splitting the electoral vote will "emasculate" the state's political influence.
POLITICAL TRADE WARS
Faced with the loss of a Senate seat from South Carolina that they have held since the 1870s, Democrats are playing the foreign trade card to fight the election of Republican Rep. Jim DeMint.
The Democratic candidate, State Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, in last week's debate attacked DeMint's votes in the House supporting Chinese Permanent Normal Trade Relations and the Central America Free Trade Act. She blamed DeMint's free trade policies for the loss of 57,000 South Carolina jobs. Former Gov. David Beasley was unsuccessful against DeMint in the Republican primary using the tactics now employed by the Democrats.
Tenenbaum had achieved a near tie by stressing DeMint's co-sponsorship last year of a 23 percent national sales tax in place of the federal income tax, but she now has fallen far behind again. In her closing statement at last week's debate, she did not even mention the sales tax proposal.