The plan to

may be forgotten -- but it's certainly not dead.

A year ago, there was a flurry of

and

stories about legislation sponsored by Rep. Pete Lund (R-Shelby Twp.) that would have

-- even though he lost by a jaw-dropping 10 points.

That's almost

Not surprisingly, the plan was

Right now, Michigan is

that has a winner-take-all system for electoral votes. The presidential candidate who wins the most votes, wins the state. Pretty simple.

The only problem for Republicans is that Democrats have won Michigan in the

So clearly, they

Here's how Lund's plan would work. Michigan has 16 electoral college votes. Just two of those would go to the presidential candidate who won the most votes statewide.

to the winner in each of the state's 14 congressional districts.

Lund knows quite a bit about the makeup of those congressional districts. As

, he was instrumental in drawing those lines.

And as luck would have it, Republicans managed to score a 9-5 advantage in the party base of those congressional districts. And coincidentally, that is

of the congressional delegation today.

So it would be fairly easy for the next Republican nominee to win Michigan, even if s/he lost the state by several hundred thousand votes.

That would also be the antithesis of democracy.

Michigan wasn't the only state where this scheme was proposed.

, like Wisconsin, Virginia and Pennsylvania, flirted with the idea and dropped it under scrutiny.

Notice how Republicans weren't pushing the change in red states like Georgia or Arizona, where Democrats would pick up electoral votes in some congressional districts.

You might assume the idea is dead in Michigan, as well. Lund

GOP Gov. Rick Snyder last year said it's

to take up the issue.

But many Republicans still love the idea.

And you know when might be an appropriate time? The post-2014 election session, when Republicans can flex their legislative muscles with little consequence.

That's what happened in lame duck 2012.

And lo and behold, it suddenly was. So were abortion restrictions he'd expressed concern over and citizenship requirements for voting that he had vetoed.

Lame duck 2014 is the perfect time to resurrect the electoral college legislation that could enshrine GOP power for decades.

And Pete Lund is just the man to do it. Armed with an affable smile, partisan hammer and boundless ambition (

), Lund would ensure his place as a Republican player if he could jam this through.

If Michigan makes this move, other states will likely follow.

Sure, there will be hand-wringing newspaper editorials and diatribes from good government groups, but they can be ignored. The next election will be in 23 months, and Lund is

anyway.

There's no real risk in exercising raw political power. The most surprising thing would be if Republicans didn't try to do so.

Susan J. Demas is Publisher and Editor of

Inside Michigan Politics

, a nationally acclaimed, biweekly political newsletter. She can be reached at susan@sjdemas.com. Follow her on Twitter

.