The scheduling-hearing for Paul Jacob of the "Oklahoma 3" will be held today, at the Oklahoma County Courthouse at 1:30pm.

The background of this case is detailed on the Free Paul Jacob website:

National term limits leader and initiative rights advocate Paul Jacob and two others were indicted in Oklahoma October 2, 2007, on felony charges of violating the state’s statute requiring petition circulators to be residents of Oklahoma.

“This indictment is not about the law, but about politics—ugly, anti-democratic politics,” said Paul Jacob, president of the pro-initiative group Citizens in Charge and a senior fellow at the Sam Adams Alliance, a grassroots political organization. “Their prosecution is a 100-percent politically-motivated attempt to threaten and intimidate me, and any other citizen wishing to petition their government.”

Jacob and his co-defendents — Susan Johnson, president of National Voter Outreach, a petition management firm, and Rick Carpenter, the proponent of the controversial 2005 initiative that would have set a cap on state government spending that could only be lifted by a vote of the people — pled not guilty....(more)

At his arraignment in January, Jacob said that he has "never heard of a prosecutor, other than maybe Nifong, to play it as political as Drew Edmondson," is in his current case - which is a dispute over whether or not he, Johnson and Carpenter fulfilled Oklahoma's residency requirements prior to collecting signatures for a ballot initiative which did not become law. Last October, Jacob released a statement:

What Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is trying to do to me is wrong. In America, we cherish the right to engage in politics, to speak our minds, to promote our candidate, to work to pass a voter initiative, without fear of reprisal. That is why today is such a sad day, not only for me, but for all of us who love the initiative process and the right of citizens to control their government....

Stay tuned here for updates on this case.

Labels: Oklahoma 3, Paul Jacob TABOR

Posted at 3/13/2008 10:30:00 AM