Republicans are particularly adept at doing that. With the occasional exception of Ed Rendell, Republicans control nearly every aspect of government in the "big three" swing states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Not only does this give them an advantage in Presidential Elections, as seen by, among other things, Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell, but the gerrymandered maps in these congressional district rich states are almost single-handedly responsible for the current Republican majority in the House. Despite Bush only winning 50.6% of the vote in these three states, by legal means or otherwise, in the 62 CD's in these three states, Republicans control 42 seats, or 67.7%. That is worse than we do in Texas under DeLay's map.

How do they do it? Largely, through illegal corporate contributions funneled into the campaigns of state AG's and Secretary's of State. For example, in Pennsylvania:

Sunday, December 05, 2004

By Marc Levy, The Associated Press

HARRISBURG -- An executive of an Oklahoma oil and gas company was revealed Friday to be the largest source of a generous campaign donation made to state Attorney General-elect Tom Corbett through a national Republican fund-raising group in the waning days of his campaign.

Aubrey K. McClendon, the chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corp., gave a total of $450,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee, which in turn gave $720,000 to Corbett and Republican state groups in the final month of the election.

But the sources of all of that money did not come out until Friday, the deadline that state officials gave the Washington D.C.-based RSLC to comply with state law and reveal the sources.

A Wachovia Bank loan, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. political action committee, and the College Republican National Committee supplied another $255,000 of the total sum the RSLC gave.(...)

But in an Oct. 22 filing, the RSLC essentially listed itself as the source of a $480,000 donation on Oct. 15, raising an outcry from Corbett's Democratic opponent, Jim Eisenhower, and prompting state officials to order the RSLC to reveal the source of money given in Pennsylvania.(...)

Eisenhower's campaign originally questioned whether the RSLC had used corporate money to fund the donation, which is illegal in Pennsylvania.

Many of the RSLC's donors listed in IRS filings are corporate sources, including Indianapolis-based Centaur Inc. and Harrah's of Memphis, both of which hope to open a slot-machine parlor in Pennsylvania, and slot-machine manufacturing giant International Game Technology of Reno, Nev.

While Barnes in October denied that corporate money was used -- individuals and partnerships legally may give money to candidates and political action committees in Pennsylvania -- he would not reveal the sources.(...)

In unofficial returns, Corbett beat Eisenhower by about 120,000 votes, or 50 percent to 48 percent.

So Corbett, the new Pennsylvania AG, illegally used corporate donations to win a narrow victory in November. Now, the only person who can investigate this is... Corbett, the new Pennsylvania AG. Further, Corbett is now significantly responsible for the legal apparatus surrounding future elections in the state. I feel assured that he will act in a professional, non-partisan manner.

That brings us to Blackwell, who conducted a magnificent election in Ohio, with no problems whatsoever (PDF), and never had a conflict of interest in that he was the chair of Bush's Ohio campaign. Now, he is running for governor:

Ohio's chief elections officer is facing criticism for a fund-raising letter that thanks Republicans for "helping deliver" Ohio for President Bush -- and asks for illegal corporate contributions for his 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who was co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio, said the request for corporate checks was an oversight and that criticism of his partisan activities for Bush is "misdirected."

"My message is pretty simple: The curse of the Bambino has been lifted from the Boston Red Sox, Elvis is dead, and the election is over," he said.

Blackwell sent a letter last month to Republican donors and activists statewide asking for contributions and lauding their efforts in the fall presidential campaign.

"I want to say thank you for helping deliver the great Buckeye State for George W. Bush," Blackwell wrote, adding that "unapologetic liberal" Democratic Sen. John Kerry could have won Ohio -- but "thankfully, you and I stopped that disaster from happening."

Blackwell also says in the letter that he was "truly pleased to announce President Bush had won a critical and clinching victory here in Ohio."

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, of Michigan, who prepared a report on Ohio's election problems as ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the letter bolsters suspicions that Blackwell's actions as secretary of state during the election "stemmed from partisan political motivations" to help Bush.

"Such a blatant statement acknowledging the commingling of his official duty to ensure a fair election with his partisan duty to re-elect President Bush, made in a political fund-raising appeal, evidences Secretary Blackwell's poor judgment at best, and the manipulation of election administration for partisan purposes, at worst," Conyers said in a statement.

Two important states, two Republicans winning with illegal corporate contributions, two terrible House maps, and big time electors being cast for Bush. A few days ago I wrote a diary over at Dailykos entitled You Do Not Want Election Reform that called for a county and state level strategy to achieve election reforms rather than a federal one. These are two perfect examples for why such a strategy is needed. By controlling the levers of elections in statewide races, Republicans have been able to not only do serious damage to Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida as states, but they have managed to overwhelmingly influence the balance of power in the federal government. No Republican control of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and there would be no President Bush, and probably no Speaker Hastert.