Staff’s blog
CPAC 2010 turned out well for Citizens in Charge Foundation. The Government Gone Wild theme was a huge hit; the t-shirts, state grades reports, and information flew off the table at our booth. The government indeed has gone wild, and citizen initiative rights are one of the best ways to get it back under control.
We will likely be ordering more of the Gov’t Gone Wild t-shirts, so make sure to stay tuned to our website for more information.
In Alaska, House Bill 36 says it will make the state’s initiative process more transparent and open. It always seems that when those two words start flying out of the mouths of government officials the results will be anything but open and transparent.
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Yesterday afternoon the Missouri Senate Elections Committee passed Senate Bill 818 out of committee by a vote of 6 to 1, many weeks ahead of where similar legislation was last session.
The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas has filed suit against the city of Big Spring on behalf of the Concerned Citizens Council, whose petition was rejected last month. A reaction to the city council’s violation of Texas public meeting law last month, the suit seeks to void a meeting in which a tax rollback petition was rejected.
British recording company EMI has put Abbey Road Studios - where rock legends The Beatles recorded most of their albums and singles - up for sale, and fans have started an online petition to keep the building a recording studio.
It’s that time of year again….CPAC 2010 has arrived. Citizens in Charge Foundation is a co-sponsor of the conference again this year.
We’ll be at booth #605 in the exhibition hall, so come by and get a tshirt. This year our theme is Government Gone Wild! The best way to protect yourself from out of control government is to support citizen rights, and that means supporting the petition process. With a stronger and more open petition process citizens will be able to keep their government in check with initiatives and referenda.
California voter Michael Ni’s signature on a statewide petition could “reshape American politics forever.” That is because Ni’s signature, which was delivered on a flash drive to the San Mateo County clerk last week, is the first in history to be recorded and transmitted to elections officials electronically. You can read the whole story here.
A college student in the state of Washington may have found a way to get youth to vote. A Washington State University junior is looking to get a measure on the ballot to lower the drinking age in the state from 21 to 19. I would imagine it won’t be too hard for him to get signatures at colleges around the state.
Today, Citizens in Charge Foundation, a transpartisan national voter rights group focused on the ballot initiative and referendum process, presented the Concerned Citizens Council of Big Spring, Texas with the February 2010 John Lilburne Award. The group is being recognized for standing up for the petition rights of all citizens by filing suit against the city council for violating the state open meetings law in an attempt to block the Concerned Citizens Council’s petition.
Today, long time ballot initiative rights activist””and Citizens in Charge Foundation Maine Citizen State Coordinator””Mary Adams informed the Maine Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee of the harm posed to the citizen initiative process by a series of bills.
An ethics initiative that is moving through the political system in Utah continues to cause controversy. The latest development is the whether or not the process of removing petition signatures can or should be streamlined. Citizens in Utah are allowed to remove their names from petition signature lists if they change their minds, but some are complaining that it is too difficult to do so.
“Spite, codified.” That was what Seattle Times columnist Bruce Ramsey recently called six bills in the Washington state legislature that aim to restrict the initiative process. All the bills would severely hamper Washingtonians’ Â constitutionally guaranteed right to put state laws on the ballot through petitioning. Ramsey says all the bills are sponsored by bitter legislators who want to take a slap at perennial initiative sponsor Tim Eyman.
Because Hawaiians have no statewide initiative or referendum rights, the Aloha State earned a “D” on our recently released state-by-state report card on initiative and referendum rights. We like to think that the state’s poor performance will prompt action to give the people more of a voice in government by creating an open and accessible initiative process. Unfortunately, at least one talking head in the state doesn’t want the people to have a greater say in their state government.
I put this story up on the Newswire earlier today, so you should certainly go take a look. It’s out of San Diego and it involves a potential vote on mayoral powers in the city. The City Council voted 6-2 to delay letting the citizens vote on the issue. Democrats voted to delay the vote, and Republicans voted to go ahead with it.