Did we avoid the J.A.I.L. square this time around on the monopoly board?
Recently on the J.A.I..L. website, the signature thermometer went from around 12,000 signatures to just under 35,000. Add this to a comment from Bob Newland on my blog (under a prior post) where he noted that they’ve got a lot of signatures. Does that mean we’re going to see the J.A.I.L. petition show up on the Secretary of State’s doorstep before the deadline?
According to the Secretary of State's useful (as always) website the State Constitution says the big bad deadline day is today according to Art. XXIII, Sec. 1 (that’s article 23, section 1 for the Roman numerically impaired) which states in part:
“An amendment proposed by initiative shall require a petition signed by qualified voters equal in number to at least ten percent of the total votes cast for Governor in the last gubernatorial election. The petition containing the text of the proposed amendment and the names and addresses of its sponsors shall be filed at least one year before the next general election at which the proposed amendment is submitted to the voters…..”
I’ve already mentioned a couple of times that today is the big bad day marking one year until Election Day 2006, and it's also the day when amendments to the State Constitution need to be turned in.
And as of this writing, at noon on the 7th of November I verified with Kea Warne, the Elections Supervisor for the Secretary of State that nothing had shown up yet. Under 35,000 signatures. So close, and yet so far.
There wasn't a glimmer of hope for Gerry Lange's corporate income tax petitions, which never got off the ground (making it really questionable why Ron Volesky is using it as a Gubernatorial campaign promise), but the J.A.I.L. people took the effort seriously. They raised $8000, and one took out a second mortgage on their home to fund the effort. And they went out and paid hired guns to get the petition signatures that they needed.
Speaking of the hired guns, check out this statement from the J.A.I.L. website which explains why they needed a second mortgage:
As of now? There's 4 hours and 48 minutes to go.
According to the Secretary of State's useful (as always) website the State Constitution says the big bad deadline day is today according to Art. XXIII, Sec. 1 (that’s article 23, section 1 for the Roman numerically impaired) which states in part:
“An amendment proposed by initiative shall require a petition signed by qualified voters equal in number to at least ten percent of the total votes cast for Governor in the last gubernatorial election. The petition containing the text of the proposed amendment and the names and addresses of its sponsors shall be filed at least one year before the next general election at which the proposed amendment is submitted to the voters…..”
I’ve already mentioned a couple of times that today is the big bad day marking one year until Election Day 2006, and it's also the day when amendments to the State Constitution need to be turned in.
And as of this writing, at noon on the 7th of November I verified with Kea Warne, the Elections Supervisor for the Secretary of State that nothing had shown up yet. Under 35,000 signatures. So close, and yet so far.
There wasn't a glimmer of hope for Gerry Lange's corporate income tax petitions, which never got off the ground (making it really questionable why Ron Volesky is using it as a Gubernatorial campaign promise), but the J.A.I.L. people took the effort seriously. They raised $8000, and one took out a second mortgage on their home to fund the effort. And they went out and paid hired guns to get the petition signatures that they needed.
Speaking of the hired guns, check out this statement from the J.A.I.L. website which explains why they needed a second mortgage:
The bad news is that sort of guarantee of success cost big bucks -- $2.48 per signature. You do the math! We will continue to collect signatures ourselves as to reduce the final bill, but it was realized soon after we started collecting that going with volunteers only was not going to cut it.With many of those signatures costing $2.48 a pop, if they had the numbers they needed, you have to wonder why they haven't yet darkened the steps of the State Capitol Building.
As of now? There's 4 hours and 48 minutes to go.
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