Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Ballot Access in Illinois So Jeff Trigg over at Random Act of Kindness is trying to drum up the support of Illinois-based bloggers to promote his pet cause -- improving ballot access for Libertarian Party candidates. But you know what? It's a good idea anyway. And it doesn't matter if you support Libertarians or some other third party, or even one of the major parties. If you're interested in drug policy reform, you want improved ballot access. Third party candidates (and Libertarians in particular) are much more likely to support drug policy reform publicly. (When I did drug policy-based voting guides, it was mostly the Libertarian candidates who wrote me to thank me for the endorsement. Not a single Democrat or Republican did.) Democrat and Republican politicians not only won't discuss drug policy reform, they often don't have to because they're running unopposed in Illinois. Even a Libertarian candidate that doesn't have a chance of winning can ask the questions and start the dialog. So I'm 100% behind this idea. If you're in Illinois, do your part to help out. Here are the instructions from Jeff: House Bill 758 is a bill that would reduce the petition signatures that independent and third party candidates need to get in 90 days so they can appear on the ballot. Currently, independent and third party candidates often need 30 to 40 times the number of signatures that Republicans and Democrats need. In the recent Iraq election ALL candidates had the exact same requirement. HB758 would reduce the signatures needed to only double what the Republicans and Democrats need. Passing HB758 is simply the right thing to do. First, email "Chris Rhodes" ( chris@joincross.com ) and ask him to talk to his boss, Leader Tom Cross, about sponsoring HB758 and getting his leadership team to do likewise. Ask Chris to find out from Tom his thoughts/stance on HB758 and to post those on his blog. (Sorry to put you on the spot Chris but I had to. I'll try to make it up to you somehow.) Second, email, call, fax, mail, or otherwise ask our own State Representative to sponsor HB758 immediately. Don't know who your rep is? Go here and type in your address. Now that you know the name of your Rep., go here and find their phone and fax numbers and their addresses. Some Republican House Member email addresses are here. For full disclosure - Jeff Trigg, Libertarian - put me up to this but I agree our ballot access laws need to be more free and equal. Please just take a few simple steps and ten minutes to help us out. 10:55:25 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

More on the Bush Wead tapes Be sure to check out Joe Conason's take on the tapes. ...The Texas politician couldn't reassure his friend that he hadn't used cocaine, let alone marijuana, but as governor he was imprisoning young men and women unlucky enough to be arrested in possession of those narcotics, often for draconian mandatory-minimum sentences. He always cherished his image as a tough, swaggering, law-and-order politician who didn't hesitate to imprison teenagers. But that isn't what happens to people from good families.... [thanks to Scott] 10:32:24 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []