Richardville, Snyder turn down new presidential electoral scheme

 It looks like someone didn’t get the memo from Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman.

State Sen. Randy Richardville, a Republican and Senate majority leader, turned a few heads Tuesday when he said at a press briefing that he didn't support a state House proposal to reform the state’s presidential electoral process – by divvying electoral votes by Congressional district, rather a winner-take-all electoral votes in Michigan.

With last fall’s surprising loss by GOP contender Mitt Romney to President Barack Obama (including in Michigan), the Michigan Statehouse is among many Republican-controlled legislatures nationwide giving serious thought to making that change, believing it may give Republicans a needed edge in the next presidential election. Given shifting demographics and the lack of a winning message by Republicans, the party believes it has a better shot of winning elections by picking up electoral votes in Congressional districts, rather than the winner-take-all approach prevalent in most states.

One can hardly blame Republicans for trying to shake things up – though the move does seem extreme.

Richardville said as much Tuesday, saying he didn’t see a need to fix a system that isn’t broken.

Hours later, Gov. Rick Snyder also turned down the idea of the reform, even though in recent days Snyder said he had been open to the idea. That means the reform most likely will go nowhere in Michigan, though we can expect many Republican-controlled states to follow the lead from their national party leaders.