We don't articulate it very often, but CfER does have a strategy for bringing IRV and PR to California (as well as nationally). It's based on a set of assumptions and observations.

(a) Adoption of a new idea is easier to accomplish at the local level than at the statewide or national level.

(b) Experience with a new idea at the local level, in several localities, paves the way for adoption at the statewide level.

(c) Similarly, experience with a new idea at the statewide level, in several states, paves the way for adoption at the national level. (For example, the women's suffrage movement was successful at the state-by-state level before achieving national success.)

(d) State legislators often begin their careers in local government.

(e) The only form of PR available for California's non-partisan local elections is Choice Voting.

(f) Choice Voting requires the same ranked ballots, and the same equipment to tally them, as does IRV.

(g) Small evolutionary change is easier to accomplish than large revolutionary change.

(h) Electing a single-member district local legislative body using IRV will pave the way for converting it to Choice Voting with no (or fewer) districts.

Those assumptions, observations, and our 16 years of experience lead us to the following tactical conclusions:

(1) We should get IRV and PR adopted at the local level first, in many localities, before trying to get them adopted at the statewide level.

(2) Converting a single-winner two-round runoff election to IRV is easier than converting a multi-winner at-large plurality election to PR.

(3) Converting a local legislative body that uses single-member districts to IRV (from either plurality or two-round runoff) is easier than converting it (in one step) to Choice Voting with no districts.

This leads to our four-phase strategy:

Phase 1. Get IRV adopted at the local level, in as many localities as possible. First priority is cities and counties that use two-round runoff elections in single-member districts. Second priority is cities and counties that use plurality in single-member districts. (Do not convert at-large bodies to single-member districts just to use IRV; that would be a step backwards.)

Phase 2. As local elected officials get used to campaigning under IRV, and as voters get used to ranking candidates, get IRV adopted at the state level. Also convert single-member district cities that use IRV to at-large cities that use Choice Voting (this can be aided by redistricting crises), as well as existing at-large plurality cities to Choice Voting.

Phase 3. As voters and local elected officials get used to the benefits of proportional representation, convert the state legislature (one or both houses) to use some form of PR. Also, get California to adopt the National Popular Vote (NPV) compact (if it hasn't done so already).

Phase 4. Get Congress to amend 2 USC 2c to allow states to elect their Congressional delegations using PR. Also, with NPV in place, rendering the Electoral College moot, get a Constitutional Amendment to abolish the EC entirely and use national IRV to elect the President.

Of course, we aren't rigidly bound by this plan. We will seize opportunities as they present themselves. For example, Davis wants to go immediately to Choice Voting in Phase 1, not waiting for Phase 2.

And if a Constitutional Convention is called, we'll push it hard to establish a legislature elected using PR, without waiting for Phases 1 and 2 to complete.