More on Freedom of Choice in Health Care

June 15, 2010

On May 18 I introduced the petition to preserve Freedom of Choice in Health Care for Colorado.

The signatures for many, if not most, petitions in Colorado are collected by paid signature gatherers.

We need 120,000 signatures to ensure enough valid signatures to get the petition on the ballot in November. In El Paso County we ought to be able to collect 50-60,000. Since there are over 500,000 people in the county, that means 10% of the population–not trivial. But recent surveys show between 58-63% of the population want Obamacare repealed, so it is possible. When you add in the surrounding counties, it ought to be easy.

On Friday, June 11, federal district judge Philip Brimmer issued a preliminary injunction against HB 1326, ruling several of its key provisions unconstitutional. As I wrote on June 12, the legislature passed HB 1326 in 2009 in order to make it harder to get initiatives on the ballot by making it outrageously expensive to do so.

With that hurdle overcome, it is full speed ahead. Volunteer efforts are key because we volunteers are much more careful about collecting signatures from registered voters–signatures that will withstand scrutiny.

Petitions will be available at all liberty events this month: check out the calendar at the CCM website for details.

Let’s show them what we think of Obamacare!

One response

Laura Victoria

June 15, 2010

Good for you for taking this on. I thought Judge Brimmer wrote an excellent opinion. This is an example of why our side shouldn’t use dated legal terms such as “judicial activism.” The left would spin his ruling as “activist” because he overturned the result of an elected body. Hello, that’s what courts are for, in part.

As you know, one of the elements of the CUT pledge is to make petitioning as easy as possible. One element of petitioning that is often forgotten is the recall petition. The recall law was changed and made much tougher several years ago, without much fanfare. Of course, those who made it tougher are the very people (and their friends) who benefit from making it tougher.

I hope our new legislature reverses that and makes it easier. In many small communities, the media will not print important, but damaging information about government officials and candidates. People would love to recall Mark Hurlbert’s former Chief Deputy, Elizabeth Oldham from her new job as head DA in Routt, et al. counties – the 14th Judicial District. But procedural hurdles are such that the law might as well say, thou shalt not recall… So they’re stuck with her for another 2.5 years.

They work for us, not the other way around, and we should be able to terminate their contracts with sufficient notice

Best wishes for success with this important petition effort.

Reply

Reclaim the Blue blog