Playing Games with Pennsylvania's Presidential Elections

Although he has personally made it clear to me that he does not intend to tackle the critical issue of property tax reform/relief, I have admired State Senate Majority Leader Domenic Pileggi (R-Delaware) as an informed, educated, articulate, dignified, genteel, and respectful elected official who is able to maintain good relations with those from both sides of the aisle. Regrettably, he is currently at the forefront of legislation which threatens to tarnish his sterling reputation.

Pennsylvania, for better or worse (often for worse), has been a state that has consistently voted for Democrats for president, thus all of the Commonwealth's electoral votes have been distributed to the Democratic winner.

Senator Pileggi and other Republicans propose to upset the apple cart by implementing a system of proportional assignment of electors, a method which would have put a thumb on the scales for the Republicans in all recent presidential elections, enabling the electoral vote count to be much closer nationwide.

It is instructive to note that it is only state Republicans that are pushing this measure, serving to wipe out any argument that the plan is being promoted in a non-partisan effort to make elections more fair.

A powerful case can be made that the electoral college should be abolished and I would like to see that happen, but if that is to occur, it must be enacted nationwide, not through states enacting different systems one by one.

The maneuver proposed by Senator Pileggi has been depicted by Democrats and other fair-minded individuals as cheating, and I cannot argue with that characterization.

The Republican Party should put good candidates on the ballot and vigorously campaign for them rather than seeking to put into place a scheme that will enable them to secure electoral votes unfairly. I hope that Governor Corbett would not rush to sign into law a bill that would make it clear that the playing field in Pennsylvania is tilted to one side.