EDMOND — In September 2006 I wrote a column in this paper about the TABOR petition that had just been thrown out by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. In its opinion, the court noted evidence of “substantial illegal participation of out-of-state circulators” in violation of state law.
Last week, three individuals behind the initiative petition were in Oklahoma County District Court to plead not guilty to a multi-state grand jury indictment on felony charges of conspiracy to defraud the state and filing a fraudulent initiative petition. Paul Jacob of Virginia, Susan Johnson of Michigan and Rick Carpenter of Tulsa were removed from the courtroom in handcuffs, protesting their innocence all the way.
It’s a surprising change of venue for the three, who have worked together for years across the country in neoconservative initiative petition drives for everything from eminent domain and school vouchers to term limits for judges and legislators. They circulated in the rarified air of Republican political activists among folks like Grover Norquist, Howard Rich, Ed Crane, Eric O’Keefe and billionaires Charles and David Koch.
The Byzantine web linking all these characters is difficult to follow, probably by design. Jacob is listed on the Web site of U.S. Term Limits as a “senior fellow,” with Howard Rich, his brother-in-law, as president. Rich is a wealthy New York City real estate developer who is on the board of directors of the Cato Institute and the Club for Growth.
Jacob also is listed as a “senior adviser” for the Sam Adams Alliance, of which Eric O’Keefe is chairman and chief executive officer. O’Keefe is the former national director of the Libertarian Party and now treasurer of Americans for Limited Government chaired by Howard Rich. Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn is chairman emeritus of ALG, which has spent more than $7.3 million on conservative ballot initiatives across the country.
ALG’s Web site lists a group called Oklahomans for Good Government as its Oklahoma partner. OGG is the pet project of state Sen. Randy Brogdon. Rick Chamberlain is head of Oklahomans in Action, which received most of its money from ALG and OGG, which in turn received their big bucks from the national groups.
Much of the money for the TABOR campaign went to Johnson’s National Voter Outreach. That’s an initiative petition organization that brought in professional petition circulators from other states.
Oklahoma has some of the most stringent laws in the country regulating initiative petitions. One of those restraints requires circulators to be “qualified electors.” In throwing out the TABOR petition last year, the Oklahoma court found that more than 60 out-of-state circulators were used to collect signatures.
On his Web site, Jacob claims that NVO checked with “officials in the Secretary of State’s office” and were told that outsiders could simply “come to Oklahoma, declare residency and begin circulating a petition.” He said he participated in the term limits campaigns in 1994 and 1996, during which “many people moved to Oklahoma, registered to vote and circulated the petition. Often they would live with friends or at a hotel.”
Jacob cites legal precedent to bolster his argument. He’s partially correct. In 1988 the Supreme Court struck down Colorado’s prohibition on payment of circulators. But the court also said in a 1974 case that “there must be a substantial regulation of elections if they are to be fair and honest and if some sort of order, rather than chaos, is to accompany the democratic process.”
In 1999 the court threw out Colorado’s requirement that circulators be registered voters, wear name badges and disclose who is paying them. The residency requirement was not raised as an issue in that case. But the Supreme Court assumed, for discussion’s sake, the residency requirement would be upheld as part of the state’s legitimate interests in regulating the election process.
Last year I wrote that prosecutors would have their hands full with so many circulators. But instead of pursuing the individual circulators, the state creatively indicted the bigwigs behind the scenes on heftier charges that they conspired to violate Oklahoma law.
The case has been assigned to Judge Bill Graves, a conservative former legislator with a long-held passion in this arena. In 1974, Graves questioned whether out-of-state students could register to vote and keep their home license plates on their cars.
There’s little question the TABOR crowd brought in outsiders and paid them to circulate petitions. The ultimate question will be whether Oklahoma’s restriction is inconsistent with free speech provisions of the U.S. Constitution, and that won’t be answered any time soon.
WALTER JENNY JR., an Edmond resident, is secretary of the Oklahoma Democratic Party and chairman of the Edmond Democrats.
Opinion
Out-of-state petition circulators may be out of luck this time
- Opinion
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Seeing yourself as the world sees you
