Obama Weekly Address

George Wenschhof

Vice President Biden delivers the weekly address and stresses Democrats will continue to push for job creation in spite of Republican obstruction in the Senate.

This week, for the third time in recent weeks regarding job creating legislation, Republican Senators blocked a piece of the jobs bill promoted by President Obama.



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Republican Weekly Address

George Wenschhof

Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) used this opportunity to promote himself as one who wants to work in a bipartisan manner. The first term senator, who is facing a tough reelection battle, also highlighted his anti-Washington credentials.

Brown also asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to move a bill forward and support a repeal of the present 3% government withholding of payments to government contractors.



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Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Unemployment Drops To 9% - the Labor Department reported 80,000 jobs were added last month as the overall unemployment rate dropped. You can read more here.

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Obama/Sarkozy Press Conference Today - planned for 3:00 PM ET as the G-20 Summit gets underway in France. Both presidents will answer questions from the press. You can read more here.

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Cain Remains Tied With Romney - in the latest poll conducted by The Washington Post/ABC News. The poll was conducted October 31-Nov. 3, during the first days of the sexual harassment revelations. Romney led with 24%, Cain 23%, Perry 13%, and Gingrich 12%. You can read details of the poll here.

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Swing States Poll Shows Tough Battle Ahead for Obama - USA Today will be polling twelve swing states during the upcoming election year. The data today suggests President Obama is indeed in for a tough campaign. You can read more here.

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Senate Republicans Continue To Block Jobs Bill - this time, it was a 60 Billion component of the American Jobs Act to fund infrastructure and establish an Infrastructure Bank. The vote was 51-49 in favor, but 60 votes has been the new standard as Republicans continue to make use of the filibuster rule. The Washington Post has more here.

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Greek Turmoil Continues - a confidence vote is expected today on Prime Minister George Papandreou. The referendum on the bail-out deal has now been dropped, but questions remain if Greece will accept the Eurozone offer. World financial markets have reacted with wide swings as this story has unfolded. Reuters.com has more here.

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DCCC Begin Radio Ads in 25 House Districts - the same number of seats needed by Democrats to retake the majority in the House. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will be using the ads to highlight how Republican Representatives voted for tax cuts for the wealthy and other controversial issues. TheHill.com has more here.

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Maryland Petition Law Challenged In Courts

George Wenschhof

Democracy in action is what proponents of petitions and referendums often say when asked why they are undertaking a petition drive. Allowing voters to decide is what they believe should be done in regard to a contested issue.

These petition drives are often a result of a municipal or state action which angers voters.

In Maryland, petition to referendum can be undertaken on a variety of issues such as zoning or charter changes.

Legislative guidelines prescribe time frames and basic requirements to be met before an issue can be put to referendum for voters to decide.

This legislation aims at providing the opportunity for voters to petition for referendum, but to not make it so easy that every government action would be challenged.

Critics of the referendum process point to western states where referendums are used on seemingly, every possible issue, making it difficult to act administratively or govern. They also complain there is often an added cost involved in a petition generated vote.

In Maryland, multiple law suits have been filed challenging state law on the petition process.

In Frederick County Maryland, the dispute is over the authentication process of signatures by individuals who wanted to force a special election for members of a county commissioner appointed charter writing board.

The charter writing board is charged with writing the document to create a charter form of government in Frederick County with county voters having the final say in the 2012 general election.

Some signatures were disqualified which did not include a middle initial matching the voter registration of the individual. Others were thrown out due to a missing telephone number of the individual procuring the signatures.

Former Frederick County Commissioner and attorney John "Lenny" Thompson is simultaneously appealing to the state Court of Appeals and the Maryland Court of Special Appeals a circuit court decision upholding the local elections board action to disqualify the petition based, in part, on missing middle initials.

A statewide petition process to put to referendum the Maryland "Dream Act" recently passed by the Maryland General Assembly is also being challenged in the courts.

In this case, petitioners utilized in part, a computer generated petition to successfully meet the number of required signatures to force a referendum question be placed on the 2012 general election ballot. It is the use of the computer generated petitions that is under scrutiny in this case.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, a petition for a voter referendum on a new ambulance fee also received court scrutiny due to missing middle initials on signatures. In that case, The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision, clearing the way for a referendum on the issue to be placed on the 2010 general election ballot.

In Howard County, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals has ruled the Howard County Board of elections acted properly when they disqualified signatures on a petition to force a referendum on a zoning issue. It is likely the state's highest court will hear an appeal of this case as well as the other cases.

Thompson informed me in a recent telephone interview that is why he filed appeals with both the Court of Appeals and the Court of Special Appeals, hoping the state's highest court would hear his appeal and bypass review by the Court of Special Appeals.

It is Thompson's belief state law conflicts with itself in regard to what constitutes a valid signature.

Clarity is needed as local election board staff is adhering to current state law and the instructions provided to them when they validate signatures.

The Court of Appeals would be wise to take all of these related cases and rule in an expeditious manner on the merits so guidance can be given to both local board of election staff and petitioners.

Interestingly, in a recent conversation with Frederick County Elections Director Stuart Harvey, I discovered a signature on an absentee ballot would not be disqualified if it was missing a middle initial.

Thompson made a strong point when he said to me "a signature by an individual should be verified in the same manner regardless of whether it is on a legal instrument, payroll check, ballot or petition".

Reasonable guidelines are warranted in a petition for referendum in a representative democracy. However, determining a signature to be invalid due to a missing middle initial is neither sound nor evenhanded.

An individual's right to vote and have it be counted is precious and valued - I trust the state's highest court will act to preserve this right.

Stay tuned....

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