Paul Jacob Indicted in Outrageous Political Ploy to Quell Citizen Initiative Rights

Paul Jacob, the Sam Adams Alliance's Senior Advisor, has worked tirelessly for years to promote and protect the citizen initiative process. Today he was rewarded for his efforts, however, with an outrageous and baseless indictment from Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who is abusing the law to suppress the initiative process—and slander Paul's name in the process.

This is an outrage, not only for Paul Jacob, but for citizens across the country who have dared to assert their right to have a say in their government.

"This indictment unsealed today is not about the law, but rather 100 percent politically motivated. This is politics-very ugly politics," Paul said in a statement. "The highest legal office in the state of Oklahoma seems bent on silencing citizens through harassment and intimidation, threats and coercion. The goal is to silence me, and to frighten you, from petitioning our government."

"This is about daring to use initiatives—they just want to shut this process down," said Bob Costello, the Sam Adams Alliance president.

The indictment is based on so-called charges that when Paul served as an advisor to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) petition drive in Oklahoma last summer (backed by Oklahomans in Action), he violated the Oklahoma statute requiring petition circulators to be residents (a residency requirement currently being challenged in federal court).

Paul outlines in his statement that, as an advisor to the petition drive, he worked with Oklahomans in Action (the backers of the TABOR initiative) to obtain the best petition services, and then to monitor the drive's progress. Oklahomans in Action contracted with National Voter Outreach (NVO), a petition company that had conducted many successful petition drives in the past. The contract specifically stated that NVO be familiar with Oklahoma's petitioning laws.

Petitioners did not have an easy job of conducting the drive, however—in fact, they faced an aggressive campaign of blockers who were paid by the opposition to harass petitioners and prevent voters from signing the petitions. Needless to say, as a result many petitioners left Oklahoma, and not enough circulators could be found to successfully continue the drive.

However, Paul was then informed that under Oklahoma's residency statute, people could move to Oklahoma, immediately declare residency, and thus qualify to begin circulating a petition. NVO received advice and approval directly from officials in the Secretary of State's office, confirming this information. This information was also consistent with the Oklahoma Supreme Court's ruling in a previous case challenging a petition drive on the basis of residency, as well as with Paul's experience monitoring ballot drives in Oklahoma in the 1990s.

Therefore, NVO acted on this information based on the confirmation from state officials.

"The underlying state statute here is an unconstitutional attempt to deny the First Amendment rights of Oklahoma citizens," Paul said. "I believe it will be and should be struck down. But even so, during the TABOR ballot drive we sought to understand this statute and to abide by it. Let me say it again: constitutional or not, we obeyed the statute."

This all comes back to the fact that the Oklahoma government is playing dirty political games to silence Paul, one of the foremost defenders of the citizen initiative process, along with citizens who stand for their right to petition the government.

Eric O'Keefe, the Chairman & CEO of the Sam Adams Alliance, issued a statement today about Paul's indictment:

"Paul Jacob is one of the most important political leaders in America. He has defied politicians of both parties by helping organize citizen petition drives so that voters could decide whether to impose term limits on politicians from Michigan to Florida, and from Maine to California. Last election cycle he worked to help taxpayers in Oklahoma and other states have the opportunity to vote to protect property rights and limit the growth of state budgets. He has been principled, tireless, and effective in these efforts. I have worked with Paul on many of these projects over the past seventeen years, and the Sam Adams Alliance is proud to have Paul as our Senior Advisor."We are, indeed, proud to have Paul as our Advisor, and we stand behind him during this time.

Read Paul's full statement here, and join the Facebook group "Free Paul Jacob- 100,000 Strong for Constitutional Rights." You can also "digg" this story here.

UPDATE: Contribute to Paul's defense fund through Causes on Facebook.  If you don't use Facebook, click here to donate directly through Citizens In Charge Foundation. Simply click on the Donate link on the 'Free Paul Jacob' page.

UPDATE II: Listen to an interview that Paul gave hours after his indictment on October 2nd.