3/28/13, "Obama signs order creating election reform commission," Politico 44, J. Epstein
"President Obama signed an executive order Thursday creating the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, a panel tasked with formulating suggestions on how to cut down on long lines to vote and other problems that plagued voters in 2012.
Obama announced plans to launch the effort -- co-chaired by lawyers Bob Bauer and Ben Ginsberg who represented the Obama and Romney campaigns, respectively, during the 2012 election -- during his State of the Union address."...via Mark Levin show
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Ben Ginsberg led RNC rule changes at the 2012 convention that short circuited the Tea Party:
8/24/12, "Romney Executes Republican Party Power Grab," BuzzFeed, Zeke Miller, "The Establishment wins a round over the grassroots."
"The Republican National Convention Rules Committee voted 63-38 to approve a new rule allowing granting the Republican National Committee — and Mitt Romney — sweeping new powers to amend the governing document of the GOP.
The move came at the encouragement of Mitt Romney supporters on the committee, including Romney's top lawyer Ben Ginsberg, who stressed that it would grant "flexibility" to Romney and the committee to adapt to changing political environments. The rule allows the RNC to amend the party's rules without a vote by the full Republican National Convention. And it offers the Republican Establishment a new tool to keep at bay Tea Party initiatives that threaten to embarrass or contradict party leadership and stray from a planned message....
"This is necessary for the world in which we find ourselves in," Ginsberg told the committee, adding that it is "important for the political survival of the party in the electoral context," for the committee to be able to change the rules as it sees fit in the intervening four years between conventions....
The Romney allies waited until Friday to propose the amendment, choosing
to avoid giving the opposition time to organize
by proposing it at the preliminary Rules meeting on Wednesday or during more than three years of RNC Rules Committee discussions."...
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2 more links on Ben Ginsberg rules changes:
"When I asked him (Ginsberg) why he did this, he replied to me, “It wasn’t our idea. We did it as a favor for some friends.”"
9/4/2012, "My views on the controversy at the 2012 Republican National Convention regarding the Rules of the Republican Party," RedState, Morton Blackwell
"What happened regarding the party rules in Tampa was a totally unnecessary – but largely successful – attempt to concentrate and centralize more power at the top of the party and restrict or shut off opportunities for power in the party to flow from the bottom up.
The effort was led by Ben Ginsberg, a member of the Convention Rules Committee from Washington, D.C., who represented himself as the spokesman for Mitt Romney’s Presidential Campaign.
Recently, Mr. Ginsberg worked for the campaign of Michele Bachmann. In Tampa, he led the effort to make major changes in the party rules strongly opposed by Congresswoman Bachmann.
Mr. Ginsberg is simply a man unencumbered by principles.
Then the Republican National Committee voted unanimously to approve the new rules proposed by its Standing Committee on Rules and sent them on to the Convention Rules Committee.
Enter Ben Ginsberg.
At the Convention Rules Committee meeting, he proceeded to introduce and support many amendments to the newly-revised rules which had been approved the previous day by the RNC.
The changes he proposed shared a common theme: to concentrate and centralize more power at the top of the party, and to shut off opportunities for power in the party to flow from the bottom up.
Since these rules changes would go into effect for the 2016 presidential election cycle, none of Mr. Ginsberg’s power grabs would in any way help us elect Mitt Romney and defeat President Barack Obama in November....
But Ben Ginsberg’s efforts predictably enraged conservative Republicans who treasure the protections long incorporated in our national party rules....
I repeatedly warned Mr. Ginsberg that his power grabs would hurt the Romney campaign by outraging grassroots conservatives and libertarian activists whom we want to support our candidates this year.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ginsberg continued on his path....
When the Rules Committee report was presented for consideration to the National Convention, a thunderous “NO!” vote arose from the convention floor....
Some believe the “NO” vote was louder, but Speaker Boehner ruled that the “ayes” had it....
Later in this email, I’ll discuss some of the awful changes Mr. Ginsberg supported. But first, it’s necessary to stress how important I believe it is to elect Mitt Romney and defeat Barack Obama in November....
It’s little short of tragic that some of his operatives blundered by setting up an entirely unnecessary, major controversy with grassroots Republicans at our national convention.
Undoubtedly, the worst power grab initiated by Mr. Ginsberg was his ramming through a change in the Rules of the Republican Party, a new Rule 12, which permits the Republican National Committee to change national rules between conventions.
The Democrats have had such a rule for years, and those in power in their party spend the periods between their national conventions fighting in their national committee over rules changes to benefit this or that faction, or this or that potential presidential nominee. We Republicans have avoided that by prohibiting changes in the rules between our national conventions....
The RNC Chairman has the immense power of the purse and a large staff to influence the decisions of the RNC, so an RNC Chairman can get the votes of a super-majority of the RNC for just about anything he or she desires.
For practical purposes, the new Rule 12 adds to the power of the RNC Chairman (or to the White House when there’s a Republican President) the ability to change party rules at will.
Over a number of election cycles, our party has struggled to avoid the front-loading of our delegate selection process, moving us closer and closer to a single national primary as states race to the head of the line to hold their primaries. Yet prudence dictates that there should be a reasonably long nomination process in order to properly vet all of our candidates....
Party rules were changed in this cycle to prohibit winner-take-all primaries in March of presidential election years. March primaries had to in some way allocate delegate votes proportionally to the popular vote. The new system worked, and Mitt Romney is a better presidential candidate because of that experience.
Mr. Ginsberg gutted the hard-won reform by ramming through a change in the rules to permit winner-take-all primaries in March.
When I asked him why he did this, he replied to me, “It wasn’t our idea. We did it as a favor for some friends.”
That’s a far cry from a process in which the best interests of our party are carefully discussed and considered....The way to treat newcomers to our party is fairly, politely, and even cordially."....
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Erick Erickson describes head fakes leading to Ben Ginsberg's rule changes:
8/28/12, "GOP Rules Committee Rapidly Moving to Shut Out Grassroots at 2:00 p.m. Today," Erick Erickson, RedState
"Team Romney and the RNC establishment are using that compromise as a red herring to distract from two major rules change proposals that would decimate Republican grassroots and prevent upstart political campaigns."...
among comments to Erickson piece:
"daniel22 slcraig •
When it comes to the general election most of the people here will vote Romney. However after the election do not be surprised in the least if there is a concerted effort to establish a third party candidate.
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