April 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Eric is a very shady petitioner…his unethical practices caused a drive in Montana to get thrown out in court.”

To Eric’s defense, I haven’t heard of any real evidence that he’s a “shady petitioner” and the initiatives in question in Montana were NOT thrown out because of anything that he did.

In this case, it really was ASSHOLE Democrats who threw these initiative petitions out simply becuase they didn’t like them because they if they passed they would have taken power away from the state government.

Just because I pointed out that there are Democrats who will sign some pro-liberty petitions and that there are some Republicans who try to supress pro-liberty petitions it does not mean that there aren’t indeed asshole Democrats out there who supress pro-liberty petitions.

April 17th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Thank you Richard for the back-up.

The Nation’s leading Ballot Access expert confirms Eric Dondero’s assertions on Democrats being less favorable to petitioners than Republicans, right here at ThirdPartyWatch.com.

I think some apologies are in order.”

No apologies are in order because while Richard was certainly correct in the examples that he pointed out, I can point out many examples where Republicans tried to keep things off of the ballot and/or smeared things once they made it on the ballot – including pro-liberty ballot initiatives (Richard was just refering to minor party/independent ballot access, NOT ballot initiatives).

I can site many examples.

The Republicans in Illinois got challenged the Libertarian Party’s signatures and got them kicked off the ballot – twice I believe.

I had a Republican gun show promoter call the police on me for gathering signatures for Libertarian Party ballot access at the Raleigh Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I had another Republican gun show promoter call the police on me for gathering signatures to Recall California Governor Grey Davis – yes, you read that right! This happened at the Ventura Fairgrounds in Ventura, California. The gun show promoter said that since Grey Davis did not ban all gun shows in California that we should keep him in office and she (it was a female gun show promoter) didn’t want me gathering signatures on this petition at her show (even though I was in the parking lot outside the entrance to the fairgrounds), and even though she was not a Democrat. Fortunately, California has strong petition rights compared to most states so the police and the manager of the fairgrounds both said that I could stay.

I had yet another Republican gun show promoter call the police on me in Tulsa, Oklahoma for gathering signatures on ballot initiatives to Stop Emminent Domain Abuse and to put Spending Limits on State Government. When I pointed out to the police that the fairgrounds was owned by the city and recieved tax payer funding they didn’t care and threatened to arrest me anyway. The gun show promoter wouldn’t even sell me a table when I offered him money.

The former Republican mayor of Ohama, Nebraska who is realestate mogal, would not allow any petitioning for Put Spending Limits on State Government and Legalize Casino Gambling at any of the properties that he had the lease on, which included shopping centers and government offices such as offices for the Department of Motor Vehicles. A law suit was filed over this and as a result people eventually able to gather petition signatures there, but this was no thanks to him.

The Republican Governor of Nebraska OPPOSED the Spending Limits initiative when it made it on the ballot.

I had a Republican go whine to a store manager to try to get me kicked out of the front of a grocery store in South Dakota for collecting signatures on a medical marijuana initiative.

I had a Republican in front of a polling place at a library in Souix Falls, South Dakota make a false complaint and called the police on me for gathering signatures on that same medical marijuana initiative. The cop came out and threatened me with arrest, and then claimed that I was standing too close to the polling place. Note that I was in the parking lot of the library and was over 100 feet away (and note that the polling place was in the BACK of the library which was opposite from where I was standing). I asked the cop what evidence he had that I had committed a crime. He didn’t have any so he eventually left me alone.

The Republican attorney general of South Dakota wrote negative slanted language for the ballot against the medical marijuana initiative which MPP had to file a lawsuit over.

I had Republicans stand and scream at me in front of DMV’s in Las Vegas, Nevada for gathering signatures to legalize an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and over.

I had a HORRIBLE time in Florida with Republican prison gaurd union blockers (note that they were big fans of Jeb Bush as well as GW Bush). They were blocking myself and others for gathering signatures on a petition that would have called for an election to see what union was going to represent prison gaurds in Florida. These Republican prison gaurd THUGS surrounded us, yelled at us, made threats, and even FOLLOWED us around in pick up trucks! The blocking was so bad that the petition drive had to be called off.

I had some Republicans in Arizona scream at me for gathering signatures to put Libertarian Presidential candidate Harry Browne on the ballot. One idiot Republican even suggested that George W. Bush if elected would end the income tax and replace it with nothing (as Harry Browne wanted to do). I bet him $1,000 that George W. Bush would not do this. He said that he’d take me up on that bet. Too bad that I didn’t get this in writing along with contact information from him.

I had Republican assholes call the police on me in Massachusetts for gathering signatures on an initiative petition to Reduce Penalties for Marijuana Pocession.

I wasn’t there, but I heard that the College Republicans at Auburn University called the police on the Auburn University Libertarian Club for setting up a voter registration table in a public area on campus that was near a building where the College Republicans were having an event that was open to the public. Fortunately, all the police did was tell the Auburn University Libertarians that they had to move a few more feet away. I also heard that the College Rebulicans at Auburn University were too chicken to debate the Auburn University Libertarian Club in a debate a few years ago.

April 17th, 2008 at 5:08 am
Au contraire.

As one who has been a professional petitioner for over 25 years, I can tell you that Democrats do not sign petitions. And they are rather rude and obxoxious, especially to Libertarian petitioners. They are the ones who blocked us with their Union thugs in Montana, Missouri, Arizona, Nebraska and other States in 2006, from obtaining signatures for our property rights initiatives. One friend of mine – Jake Witmer a longtime Libertarian petitioner – was even surrounded by 12 (), that’s right I said 12 Democrat blockers in Butte, Montana on primary day back in June of 2006.”

This is complete horseshit. I’ve gathered petition signatures for 8 years in 24 states and on well over 100 petitions and I can tell you that Democrats most certainly DO sign petitions. In fact, I had Democrats sign petitions for me just today. And I’m not talking about socialist, big government petitions, I’m talking Libertarian Party ballot access, marijuana decriminalization, and I’ve even had Democrats sign petitions for things that you wouldn’t expect them to sign such as Ending the State Income Tax.

Are some Democrats assholes who won’t sign pro-liberty petitions? Sure. Do some Democrats sometimes play dirty tricks to keep pro-liberty petitions from making it on the ballot? Yes they do. But this does NOT describe ALL Democrats.

I’ve had plenty of Republicans sign petitions for me as well, and I’ve also been hassled about petitions by many Republicans, including ones who played “dirty tricks” such as making false complaints about me and calling the police on me (in order to prevent a petition that they don’t like from making it on the ballot).

I’d say that Democrats and Republicans are about equal in terms of the percentages of them who are reasonable people and the percentages of them who are unreasonable assholes.

...you can continue to ‘stay within the stinking Republicrat box’ and continue to collect Republicrat signatures, ‘fight for ballot access’ by begging stinking Republicrats, etc. BOONDOGGLES ad stinking nauseam..(how much money/time spent here?)

...or you might RADICALLY CHANGE TACTICS AND DISTINGUISH YOURSELVES AS TRULY DIFFERENT/BETTER THAN THE INCREASINGLY-HATED STINKING REPUBLICRATS..

(more proof that in any organization the dummies/peckerheads/puppetheads etc. tend to rise to the top..)

The people who vote in primaries are a completely different story. The vast majority have nothing to do with either party apparatus, or allied unions or advocacy groups for that matter.

P.S. “Democrat” is a noun. “Democratic” is an adjective.

The Nation’s leading Ballot Access expert confirms Eric Dondero’s assertions on Democrats being less favorable to petitioners than Republicans, right here at ThirdPartyWatch.com.

I think some apologies are in order.

Ms. Hogarth?

Tom Bryant?

That’s funny. Here’s a few people who can be consulted to refute that claim:

Paul Jacob
Scott Tillman
Trevis Butcher
Jake Witmer

The person solely responsible for getting our petitions thrown off the ballot in the State of Montana was none other than ultra-partisan libertarian-hater DEMOCRAT Governor Brian Schweitzer.

Shows your obvious ignorance of the property rights movement, to try to blame it on me.

Didn’t the OR Republican Party fight in 2006 to try to get the Constitution Party candidate for governor off the ballot? I seem to remember reading about that.

Not that this has anything to do with this post, as Eric Prindle points out.

Sure. But Dondero’s assertion was that “Democrats do not sign petitions,” which is nonsense.