National
Ron Nehring is the current chairman of the California Republican Party and chairman of the Republican National Committee’s State Chairmen’s Committee.
Michael Foudy is a principal founder and managing member of ATB Productions, LLC, and Chairman of the Board of Stonehenge Capital Partners, Inc. and Toto Communications, Inc. He is also Chief Marketing Officer at Gramercy LLC.
I wanted to remind everyone that if you’re looking for news and views on the initiative & referendum process check out Ballot Box News and Ballot Podium. These websites are your one-stop shop for everything that’s happening around the country in the world of I&R.
I came across an article in the Nashville Scene earlier today and found it to be an interesting take on the idea and practice of a non-binding referendum.
Frequent readers of this blog will know that the president of Citizens in Charge Foundation, Paul Jacob, was the leader of the movement for legislative term limits in the 1990s. What you may not be aware of, however, is the story of how Paul got into politics in the first place.
The saga in Washington state over whether or not to make public the names and personal information of referendum petition signers continues. The U.S. Supreme Court is looking into the matter, but some in Washington don’t want to wait. They want this information public, and they want it now.
State Rep. Reuven Carlyle filed a bill for the next session that would make it a specific law that the names, home addresses, and signatures of those citizens who sign a petition are made public. What kind of precedent would this set?
The nation’s highest court will decide by January 11 if they will hear arguments in Doe v. Reed, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The case hinges on whether signatures on a referendum petition fall under the state’s public records disclosure law.
Howard County Citizens for Open Government are this month’s Lilburne Award Honorees. This group of citizens from Howard County, Maryland is currently working to protect their first amendment petitioning rights which were restricted by the Howard County Board of Elections earlier this year. To read more about the group and their case go here.
After blogging yesterday about some of the petty ways initiative opponents try to block people from excercising their voting rights by throwing out their signatures on a petition, I started thinking about the wider struggle to protect those rights. Special interests and many politicians simply don’t like the initiative process because it threatens their hold on power. The last thing they want is for you, the voter, to have a say in how their government is run.
Richard Winger at Ballot Access News uses a situation in Maine to make a great point about the many and often absurd reasons that petition signatures can be challenged around the country:
If you havent checked out our Citizens in Charge Foundation Youtube channel recently we’ve put up a handful of new videos in the past couple of months. There are also quite a few videos featuring Paul Jacob from various groups and past events. It’s definitely worth the visit, so go check it out here and make sure to rate the videos.
Since it’s Turkey-Day week and everyone is gearing up for the holiday season, the battle over “Christmas Creep” into the Thanksgiving holiday begins.
Personally, I love Christmas music, but hearing it in large amounts before Thanksgiving may be a bit much.
We asked attendees what they thought about the initiative, referendum and recall process.
Citizens in Charge Foundation President Paul Jacob discusses what is on the ballot around the country in 2009. Part I discusses states with Legislative Referral measures on the ballot and the citizen initiatives in Maine. Part II will discuss Ohio and Washington.