Here what Mr. York, of Capitol Weekly, shares:
OK, so before I sign off for the weekend, here’s the latest:
We’re waiting for official numbers from three counties. Those three counties: Santa Barbara, Madera and Mono have 9,464 signatures between them. Proponents need 6,164 to reach the magic 110 percent threshold.
That means they need 65 percent from the remaining counties to avoid the full count.
Though there’s nothing official that I can pin down, the rumor mill’s a swirlin again, and now there’s speculation that by the time September comes, the term limits initiative will have qualified for the February ballot. Our sources are now telling us that do to a series of revised estimates from various county officials, and the final numbers from the outstanding counties, proponents will come in with about 1,000 signatures more than the 763,790 needed to avoid the full count. (Strangely, Alameda County revised their estimates upwards today by about 1,000 votes).
If that’s true, what does that mean? In a word: lawsuits.
I spoke to the voice of the No side today, Kevin Spillane. He said opponents of the measure were suspicious that there may have been some illegal contact between interested parties and county election officials over the last 72 hours. These speculations were in a Sacramento Bee article this morning, but dismissed out of hand by a spokesman for the proponents, Richard Stapler.
Spillane said if the full count is avoided, the opponents would "take whatever redress is necessary" to try to block the measure from the February ballot. "If we see cause to pursue this (through the courts), we will."
Just guessing that today’s revision in Alameda County may come under some scrutiny.
This evening, Stapler would not speculate on what the future holds, saying proponents are "just waiting for the process to run its course."
Rest assured, it’s not at all that passive. But if what I’m hearing now is accurate, it looks like Gale Kaufman and Fred Kimball may have dodged a bullet…
Happy Labor Day,
Anthony
We’re waiting for official numbers from three counties. Those three counties: Santa Barbara, Madera and Mono have 9,464 signatures between them. Proponents need 6,164 to reach the magic 110 percent threshold.
That means they need 65 percent from the remaining counties to avoid the full count.
Though there’s nothing official that I can pin down, the rumor mill’s a swirlin again, and now there’s speculation that by the time September comes, the term limits initiative will have qualified for the February ballot. Our sources are now telling us that do to a series of revised estimates from various county officials, and the final numbers from the outstanding counties, proponents will come in with about 1,000 signatures more than the 763,790 needed to avoid the full count. (Strangely, Alameda County revised their estimates upwards today by about 1,000 votes).
If that’s true, what does that mean? In a word: lawsuits.
I spoke to the voice of the No side today, Kevin Spillane. He said opponents of the measure were suspicious that there may have been some illegal contact between interested parties and county election officials over the last 72 hours. These speculations were in a Sacramento Bee article this morning, but dismissed out of hand by a spokesman for the proponents, Richard Stapler.
Spillane said if the full count is avoided, the opponents would "take whatever redress is necessary" to try to block the measure from the February ballot. "If we see cause to pursue this (through the courts), we will."
Just guessing that today’s revision in Alameda County may come under some scrutiny.
This evening, Stapler would not speculate on what the future holds, saying proponents are "just waiting for the process to run its course."
Rest assured, it’s not at all that passive. But if what I’m hearing now is accurate, it looks like Gale Kaufman and Fred Kimball may have dodged a bullet…
Happy Labor Day,
Anthony
August 31st, 2007 at 12:00 am
any word from the magpie?