State Rep. Nickie Monica (R-LaPlace) has said he won’t be running for re-election this fall. A bill he introduced in the current legislative session would likely have made that decision for him if he hadn’t already announced it.

That’s because Monica is the author of HB 388, which would bind Louisiana’s electors to a national compact in which signatory states would give their electoral votes to the presidential candidate with a popular majority. Such a move would effectively destroy the Electoral College, and reduce the impact of less-populated states like Louisiana relative to more-populated states like New York and California.

Monica’s release upon introducing the bill goes in an entirely different direction. “Louisiana is ignored in general presidential elections,” it read. “Candidates do not come to Louisiana and hear our concerns and needs. In 2008, candidates concentrated 99 percent of their general election visits on 16 states. States like Louisiana, and two-thirds of the country, have become simply spectators in the election of the President.”

Monica didn’t say why presidential candidates would be any more likely to chase votes out of Louisiana’s population of four million and change when there is a population of similar size in the Houston area alone should his bill become law – or why if Louisiana signed on to this compact and agreed to put its electoral votes toward whoever wins the national popular vote it would be even necessary for politicians to spend resources here at all.

Constitutional conservatives across the country are enraged at bills like this one, which are being introduced all over the country (eight jurisdictions – Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington and Vermont and the District of Columbia – have passed an NPV bill) . And the Tea Party of Louisiana is no different – as a release the group issued today makes crystal clear.

“This would be the end of the American republic, if this bill passes,” said Bob Reid, spokesman for the Tea Party of Louisiana.

“The founders of America created the most sophisticated system of government known to man – a government designed to give the people more power than the government. This national popular vote initiative would literally uproot our system of government and would destroy our country,” added Reid.

A National Popular Vote would allow Presidential candidates to win the White House by simply earning 50% + 1 of the popular vote. It would eliminate the role of the states in elections. Ultimately, it would allow presidential candidates to win the White House by only campaigning to New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago because of the massive populations of those cities. It would also give more power at the ballot box to special interest groups.

“Americans must stop this slow transformation of America into a socialist state and reject the bill for a national popular vote,” said Reid.

The Tea Party of Louisiana has promised to work against the re-election of any legislator who votes for this bill [HB 388], regardless of their party affiliation.

“We demand that all state legislators vote against HB 388. And for those who betray the Constitution and the cause of Liberty, and vote for this offensive legislation, we promise to recruit someone to run against you in October and we will send you home,” said Reid.

TPOL’s release fails to mention the number one reason why a National Popular Vote regime would be a terrible idea – the open invitation to voter fraud it represents. Without the ability to check the voting strength of certain states through the Electoral College, political machines and groups like SEIU, Project Vote and ACORN would run roughshod through the electoral process in places like Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Las Vegas and Seattle, where it’s been proven that through a combination of same-day registration and poisoned vote counts electoral sanctity is shaky at best. The current system prevents spillover of poisoned vote processes into other states; a straight-tally vote would unshackle the operators who gave us a Sen. Al Franken or Gov. Christine Gregoire through voter fraud to influence national elections with local action.

Unfortunately, TPOL will have a lot of work to do even within Louisiana’s Republican Party in opposing legislators who advance the NPV regime. Monica won’t be in the electoral mix this fall, but he has two co-sponsors for HB 388 – both Republicans. Noble Ellington, a converted Democrat from Winnsboro, and Joe Harrison from Gray both appended their names to the bill as sponsors.

And HB 388 sailed through the House and Governmental Affairs Committee on a 14-0 vote. Given that 11 of the 19 members of that committee are Republicans, at least six of them had to have affirmatively voted in favor of moving the bill. Debate on the House floor is scheduled for June 6.

Another National Popular Vote bill was filed in the Senate. SB 126 by Joe McPherson (D-Woodworth) was scheduled to be heard in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee on May 25, but McPherson pulled the bill – at least temporarily.

It’s hard to imagine either bill could survive a debate on the floor of the House or Senate, and even harder to imagine that Gov. Bobby Jindal would sign on to such a plan. But as Charlie Davis posted here at the Hayride earlier today, killing HB 388 and SB 126 through public pressure before either can gain momentum wouldn’t be a bad expense of energy for the state’s politically active citizens.

And imposing the ultimate electoral punishment on state legislators too careless, stupid or misguided to see the dangers in embracing destructive legislation like NPV is a good goal to embrace as well.