This week special guest Paul Jacob joins me to discuss initiatives and referendums. Paul is president of the Liberty Initiative Fund, a national organization helping citizens place issues on the ballot to hold politicians accountable, fight crony capitalism and protect our liberties. Paul was the leading voice for the term limit’s movement for more than a decade, and has a wealth of knowledge to share with you today about how to bring about real change in your community.

I am excited to have Paul share with us today about the basics of the initiative and referendum process. Not only can these be used to change your community for the better, but also initiatives and referendums are often used in political campaigns to drive out the vote and create interest among certain groups. Join us today as we learn the basics of this important process.

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

• How initiatives and referendums help with voter turnout– why you should consider initiatives and referendums when running for office
• Different types of initiatives and referendums– what are the different types of things that are addressed
• Where to start- how to start the process so that you are successful in your campaign
• How to find your friends and enemies- how to think through who might support or be against your initiative or referendum
• Why you need supporters- and how having supporters can help you at all stages of the process
• Why you should prepare for litigation- why planning ahead of time for a legal battle can help you in the long run
• Why candidates can’t be the ones to bring about change- and why what you do can bring change to your community

Contact Information:

Paul Jacob, Liberty Initiative Fund 
Website: http://libertyifund.org/
Phone: 571-659-2320 ext. 226

John Tsarpalas 
Email: john@commonwealthy.com

Paul’s Bio: 

Paul Jacob is president of the Liberty Initiative Fund, a national organization helping citizens place issues on the ballot to hold politicians accountable, fight crony capitalism and protect our liberties.

“If there’s anyone who’s been involved in more citizen initiative campaigns in the history of this country [than Paul Jacob],” said Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Mathews, “I’m not aware of them.”

For more than a decade, Paul was the term limits movement’s leading voice, running U.S. Term Limits, the largest such group in the nation. For his work to bring term limits to Congress, the late columnist Robert Novak good-naturedly dubbed Jacob “the most hated man in Washington.”

Campaigning for term limits, as well as for spending caps, property rights measures and candidate ballot access, Paul has been involved in over 175 statewide petition drives.

Currently, Paul Jacob hosts Common Sense, an online and print opinion program sponsored by Think Freely Media, which reaches tens of thousands of online readers and e-mail subscribers. Paul also writes a weekly column for Townhall.com, appearing each Sunday.

“The best way to assure freedom of expression, no matter where it may be threatened,” Pulitzer-prize winning columnist, Paul Greenberg, wrote, “would be to have an army of utterly determined Paul Jacobs fighting for it.”

Paul won the “Courage Under Fire” award at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference. He has also been named “a rising star in politics” by Campaigns & Elections magazine, received the Society for Individual Liberty’s “Phoenix Award” for “contributions to the advancement of liberty in America,” and was dubbed one of “The Best and the Rightest” by National Journal.

His writing has been featured in USA Today, The Washington Times, The New York Daily News, Roll Call, Human Events, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Examiner and other publications. He has appeared on numerous television programs and is a consistent guest on talk radio.

Paul is also currently president of the boards of Citizens in Charge, a non-partisan group working to protect and expand voter initiative rights, and the Citizens in Charge Foundation, a charitable foundation conducting research on the initiative process, educating the public and litigating to defend petition rights – both groups he founded. He also serves on the board of U.S. Term Limits and the Center for Voting and Democracy (FairVote).

Paul lives with his wife Rhonda in Woodbridge, Virginia. They have three children and two grandchildren.

Transcript:  Available here

Thank you for listening!