Mar
Paul Jacob – Who Is That?
I attended an event tonight in Knoxville with Paul Jacob, set up by Ken Marrero and the Tennessee ConserVOLiance. The event was also attended by Right Wing Johnny.
So, you ask, “Who is Paul Jacob?” The Wikipedia page has a pretty good excerpt:
In 2005 and 2006, Jacob worked with an Oklahoma group, Oklahomans in Action, to place on the ballot an initiative, Stop Overspending, one of several measures run in different states known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TaBOR. Among the paid petitioners used were some that had come to Oklahoma from other states to work on the drive. On October 2, 2007, Jacob was formally indicted in Oklahoma on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the state on the matter of hiring out-of-state petitioners. Jacob claims the petition’s organizers had sought, and received, approval for this from the Oklahoma Secretary of State. The maximum fine for their alleged crime is $25,000, and the maximum sentence is ten years in prison. Jacob was indicted with two others in the case, and each pleaded not guilty.
Or you can read more of the story HERE:
National term limits leader and initiative rights advocate Paul Jacob and two others were indicted in Oklahoma October 2, 2007, on felony charges of violating the state’s statute requiring petition circulators to be residents of Oklahoma.
“This indictment is not about the law, but about politics-ugly, anti-democratic politics,” said Paul Jacob, president of the pro-initiative group Citizens in Charge and a senior fellow at the Sam Adams Alliance, a grassroots political organization. “Their prosecution is a 100-percent politically-motivated attempt to threaten and intimidate me, and any other citizen wishing to petition their government.”
Jacob and his co-defendents – Susan Johnson, president of National Voter Outreach, a petition management firm, and Rick Carpenter, the proponent of the controversial 2005 initiative that would have set a cap on state government spending that could only be lifted by a vote of the people – pled not guilty.
Take a few minutes to read the whole thing, so you will know what the details are.
Paul met with us for a couple hours, where he discussed his particular situation and also politics and media in general. Apparently the main stream media is largely ignoring his case, particularly in Oklahoma. He said that in general people outside the state of Oklahoma know more about his case than those that are Oklahoma residents. He even shared a story illustrating this fact about two soldiers conversing in a mess hall in Iraq. One, who was from Oklahoma, sat down and introduced himself as being from Oklahoma. The other immediately asked what was going on with the Oklahoma Attorney General! The Oklahoma AG, Drew Edmonson, is the one who has filed the charges against Paul and the others in this case.
Mr. Jacobs also talked about the process of ballot initiatives and referendums in other states and the tremendous hurdles the legislatures try to put up to prevent citizens from adding these initiatives. He has been a very important person in adding term limit initiatives in many states in the early 1990s, although many were struck down by the courts after overwhelming support.
I hope to follow his case, although you can also get information on the case at http://www.freepauljacob.com/.
Other News Articles about Paul Jacob:
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March 7th, 2008 at 10:57 pm