Citizens in Charge

We put up a new video late yesterday afternoon from this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC. Our theme was “Government Gone Wild”, and we got a great response from those who stopped by our booth to grab some info or a t-shirt.

Government has Gone Wild. Protect yourself.

Government has Gone Wild, protect yourself with initiative & referendum rights.

Erik Hayden recently wrote a piece in Miller-McCune outlining our report card on citizen initiative rights, and comparing it to another organizations similar report. Our comprehensive analysis of the intitiative & referendum process in each of the 50 states and Washington, DC shows that threats to these citizen rights exist all across the country.

If corporations can cut out the middleman, why not citizens? That appears to be the logic behind grassroots organizations on the left and the right who have championed the use of citizen-led ballot initiatives to break legislative stalemates and enact much needed social or fiscal reform. The ballot initiative system, which causes near constant controversy in the 24 states that allow it, gives average voters the ability to write and implement statewide legislation ”” and in some cases directly override elected officials.

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.

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.

Most states scored poorly on the 2010 Report Card on Statewide Voter Initiative Rights released in late January by the Lake Ridge, Va.-based Citizens in Charge Foundation, a national voter rights group focused on the ballot initiative and referendum process. The report card reviewed initiative and referendum rights in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, detailed the policies and laws that restrict those rights, and suggested reforms for each state to improve its grade.

We at Citizens in Charge Foundation are happy to release Of the People, By the People, For the People: A 2010 Report Card on Statewide Voter Initiative Rights today. The report compares initiative processes throughout the country to give a clearer picture of the extent to which residents of various states have the ability to affect their government through the initiative and referendum process. You can read the full report and see how your state ranks by clicking here.

Click here to view a complete copy of Of the People, By the People, For the People: A 2010 Report Card on Statewide Voter Initiative Rights.

(Please allow time for the document to load, as it is 8.4MB.)

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I recently put up some of the pictures from our trip out to Big Spring, TX to meet with the Concerned Citizens Council earlier this month. They’re on our Flickr account, so make sure to go and check them out. Pictures from events and gatherings over the past year are available on that account as well.

Citizen Foundation President Paul Jacob’s Common Sense article today discusses the Tea Party movement and its populist tone. In the article Jacob also wonders whether or not a significant number of Americans could really take a common-sense, freedom point of view and effectively use it.

Getting an initiative on the ballot is a very difficult undertaking in most places, but the use of new technology has the potential to revolutionize the petition signature gathering process. In both California and Utah, initiative campaigns are now using the internet and smartphones to gather petition signatures from voters.

A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled Thursday against a recent proposal to call for a referendum on same-sex marriages, representing yet another legislative victory in the campaign for gay rights in the District. Opponents of same-sex marriage saw the referendum, which would state that “only marriage between a man and woman is valid or recognized in the District of Columbia,” as an opportunity to negate the marriage equality law passed by the D.C. Council in December.