According to this article, signatures to recall the Colorado Senate President will be presented to the state today.
This could be the interesting recall to watch since he’s a bigger symbolic target, and the numbers behind the last election show he is beatable if he has pissed people off. What impressed me from the article is that gun owners appear to have been quite sharp and focused in meeting their goal on this recall effort:
Many of those petitions were signed at Paradise Sales under the watchful eye of Mr. Paradis, who says he was careful to check the eligibility of interested supporters on the secretary of state’s website before letting them sign.
“About 50 percent of the people who came in to sign the petition didn’t live in the district, but wanted to help,†said Mr. Paradis, one of three residents in Mr. Morse’s district who launched the recall. “There’s a real groundswell of support for this. They woke up a sleeping giant.â€
That’s good to know that at least one of the organizers was being especially focused. And it’s great to hear that people who weren’t qualified to sign were still offering to help.
Too many gun owners feel like they live in areas where they can’t make a difference, but the district right next door may be a prime target. Unlike Mike Bloomberg, you’re still part of that community.
One problem with a successful petition is that gun owners may believe that the message sent has been loud enough, and it won’t be until 2014. The energy needs to carry on into far more districts. If that can happen, then the message will likely be very loud and nationwide.
UPDATE: And, of course, in the time I started writing the post and actually got around to publishing it, Cam has updated that they have turned in far more signatures than needed.
More than 16k signatures turned in to CO Sec of State’s office for recall effort against State Senate President John Morse. #gunversation
— CamEdwards (@CamEdwards) June 3, 2013
Because of the district John Morse is in he’s a really good target. The other’s are more difficult for a one-issue recall. Getting his seat back should chill out any more calls for gun control, but we can’t reverse anything or fix anything as long as former MAIG mayor Hickenlooper is governor.
Good news.
FWIW, I followed the update link and it looks like Twitter is down again. Those guys need some real adult help over there.
Excellent news! This is the recall to watch. Colorado Springs, you need to boot this guy out.
Outstanding!
Would it require an amendment to the state constitution to get provisions for recalls in PA? That would be an awesome tool to have at our disposal for the next wave of gun grabbing.
How many Pennsylvanians would have signed on to recall Casey after he expressed willingness to toe the party line on gun control?
“Would it require an amendment to the state constitution to get provisions for recalls in PA?”
I am pretty certain it would. Other than for approving amendments to the state constitution, and a very small handful of specific matters for which the use of citizen initiatives or referenda have been approved by the General Assembly over the years, there is almost no application of “direct democracy” permitted in Pennsylvania. To be a bit cynical, for a change, the things for which citizen initiative are allowed ae things the pols want us to do anyway; for example, undertaking the process of replacing “horse and buggy” municipal governments (their words) with updated, streamlined, and generally less democratic modern forms.
But more to the point, the processes of seating and unseating public officials are all defined in the state constitution, so I’d say they could not be modified by mere legislation, but would require amendment of the constitution.
FWIW I searched the State Constitution online and looked in the index of my hardcopy book of PA constitutions (1776, 1790, 1838, 1874 and 1968) and could find no mention whatsoever of “recall.”
I hope this recall effort is successful, and that it ends his political career for the rest of all time.