Lesley Blackner, pro-con: Do petition-gatherers need more regulation? No from the TC Palm, Treasure Coast.Don't shoot! There's an endangered species the Florida Legislature is hunting to extinction. This species walks on two legs and carries a clipboard and a pen. It comes up to you with a friendly smile and asks, "Are you a Florida voter?" This creature asks you to read a petition. Hopefully you will sign it.
House Republicans want to mark petitioners, register them and tie them up with restrictions. They want to make them rarer than a Florida panther:
For more than a decade, Florida Republicans have waged an ongoing war against voters and the U.S. Constitution. They are relentlessly pushing to destroy our most fundamental First Amendment right: free speech. Yes, right here, certain enemies of democracy have worked overtime to rid the state of fellow citizens who stand on street corners and ask you to sign a petition to put an issue on the ballot. A petition like Florida Hometown Democracy, the statewide initiative to give voters a vote on whether their local growth map should be changed.
Destroying the right to petition is an obsession of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber doesn't have to stand on the corner to win the war of politics: it has tons of big money and 31 registered lobbyists locked and loaded in Tallahassee at this very moment. Perusing the state's enormous list of Tallahassee lobbyists, I did not see anybody registered to lobby for Mr. and Mrs. Average Florida Voter.
House Republican Chris Dorworth, all of 32 and a self-styled "real estate investor," is sponsoring the petitioner extinction bill. The Republicans in the Legislature are especially appalled at the little people having the nerve to take it upon themselves to amend the Florida Constitution. The big boys like to run the show without interference.
Mr. Dorworth and the Chamber assert we need more petitioning restrictions to fight identity theft. What a crock! All information you provide on a petition already is a matter of public record at the state Division of Elections. For a mere $10, the state will send you the Florida voter database, complete with address and birth dates. No petition requires you to reveal your Social Security number, which is the entry point for identity fraud.
Mr. Dorworth's bill typifies a mindset that views Americans as merely consumers, not citizens. Under this theory, our job is to work and watch TV and eat out and shop and leave governance to our elected "representatives." At election time they pander/pretend that they "represent the people." Look around Florida at the crashed economy, overbuilding, overconsumed water supplies, degraded quality of life, etc. You can judge the results for yourself.
Mr. Dorworth needs to be locked in a room until he memorizes the U.S. Constitution and reads several U.S. Supreme Court decisions holding that petitioning is our nation's most constitutionally protected form of First Amendment speech. I guess the Chamber forgot to tell him this.
Because Mr. Dorworth is still young, we can hope for his redemption. But he must repent now and withdraw this abomination. He and the rest of the legislative cabal destroying our rights should take a page from Google and assume its worthy motto: "Don't be evil."
Blackner, an attorney, is president of Florida Hometown Democracy, a citizens' initiative to amend the Florida Constitution with regard to land-use-change procedures.
5 comments:
People don't realize how much their rights have been eroded in the state in the past few years. Petition gathering is a basic tool people use to address their government when that government will not do the will of the people. What could be more fundamental than letting people vote on master plan changes in their community? Our state legislature ( and some local governments like Miami-Dade) does not think you are smart enough to vote on quality of life issues so they have to dilute with onerous restrictions any action that grants power to the people.
Petition gathering is only one thing the government wants to suspend. They also want to do away with or weaken the Department of Community Affairs which is the last resort for people to oppose bad master plan changes without the expense of court. They already have decided votes on petition iniatives, if you can get it on a ballot,must pass by 60%, not 50%. I would not be surprised if legislators passed laws that anyone opposing an encumbent must have 60% to win.
The cooalition of big business, big farmers and the chamber is a powerful force to keep you from having a say in government decisions. Try to collect a petition in a Publix parking lot and you will soon know just how much big business wants you out of their hair.
People should take to the streets to oppose these losses of freedoms but,alas, most do not seem to care.
The least one can do is sign a Florida Hometown Democray petition; it sends a message that we will not be shut out or shut up.
If people only knew...
We do know, that is what this blog is about: To keep you all knowing.
Its not just the state. The provisions to get a county wide petition through here are ridiculous. After the Natasha recall and the Mayors powers issues got on ballots , the county commission adopted several measures which added substancial obstacles for the citizenry to air their grievances.
the most egregious of the ordinances actually criminalizes free speech. It allows for the police to arrest a signature gatherer if they deem that what they are telling prospective signers is a lie. Im not making this up.
Thankfully the issue was challenged by David Dermer and southern District federal Judge Gold ruled that the ordinance vioated the constitution. What is the County response? Appeal it in upper court...nice.
Just another example of the contempt some Commissioners have for the Constitution, and how their actions so mirror those of the ones they supposedly detest.
Finally Wackenhut Gets Wacked.
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