Citizens in Charge

From Ballotnews.com:

Democratic State Assemblyman Mike Gatto has introduced a handful of proposals to the California State Legislature to would put a variety of new roadblocks in the state’s voter initiative process.

The Springfield News-Leader, which had previously editorialized against Missouri’s “Puppy Mill Petition”, has now come out against efforts to repeal the measure. The paper takes the principled position that the voters have spoken and their will should be honored.

We blogged previously about the petition signature campaign in Miami, Florida to recall Carloa Alvarez, the city’s mayor. The signatures are now collected, counted and approved:

Setting the stage for a recall election of Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez, Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin announced Tuesday that the necessary signatures have been legally collected to require a vote.

As air travelers continue to voice their discontent with the Transportation Safety Administration’s invasive new security procedures, Washington DC’s Metro transit system has instituted random bag searches, and many travelers are just as unhappy about the “Security Theater” on the train as in the airport.

A hearing was held this morning in the federal trial of Bernbeck v Gale. Arguments presented by Nebraska Attorney, David Domina will detail how restrictions placed on Nebraska’s initiative and referendum process have violated Kent Bernbeck’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Arizona Proposition 112, which would have forced petition proponents to turn in signatures two months earlier than they currently do, has been confirmed in a recount to have been defeated. The legislatively referred constitutional amendment triggered the state’s first-ever recount of a ballot initiative because the margin was less than 200 votes. Final results of the recount were certified today by a Maricopa County (Phoenix) judge showing the measure to have lost by 194 votes.

In regard to the recall signature-gathering process against Mayor Jim Suttle: On election day, I was contacted by longtime friend, Paul Jacob, formerly head of the national term limit movement and fellow initiative and referendum advocate and supporter. He was asked to assess the struggling recall effort which had been utilizing an all-volunteer team of petition circulators.

The person listed as vice-chair of a committee formed to recall Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal says her husband - the committee’s chair - put her name on the application without permission. Joyce DeCarlo Ceasar says she wants nothing to do with the recall effort initiated by her husband Wednesday.

When asked, state officials indicated that the petitions had already been distributed listing the chair and vice chair, despite Mrs. Ceasar’s objections.

It seems there is the potential for a high profile recall campaign in Louisiana against Governor Bobby Jindal:

As anyone who has followed the Tea Party movement knows, a significant portion of our citizen’s feel there has been a breakdown in our political system. Average citizens are either angry or apathetic. The signs of the broken condition of our democracy are visible everywhere: the percentage of registered voters who participate in elections is declining and seventy per cent of incumbents are re-elected without opposition.

Citizens in Tampa Bay, Florida want to crack down on the homeless panhandling. The city council apparently has yet to act, so the citizens are gathering signatures to put the measure on the ballot:

 

Why does a fellow who’s the executive director of the Greenlining Institute want to red-line democracy?