SB 777 Referendum Falls Short, CRI Files Initiative to Overturn Law
Posted by: Jeff Flint | 01/11/2008 9:17 AM
We received an email from Karen Egland yesterday, and now Capitol Alert has posted a blog entry announcing that, while they collected an impressive (for a volunteer only effort) 350,000 signatures, they had fallen short of the 434,000 necessary to qualify a referendum. Shane Goldmacher's piece reads, in part:
And they are not done. Having fallen short of the referendum drive, they are not looking to qualify an initiative to overturn SB 777.
A referendum campaign to stop enactment of an anti-discrimination law protecting gay and lesbian students fell short Thursday of the needed number of signatures.Qualifying a referendum is one of the harder things to do in politics. You have less than half the time you normally do for an initiative to get the required signatures, Karen and her team are to be commended for doing as well as they did.
The campaign, headed by the political arm of the conservative Capitol Resource Institute, announced it had gathered 350,000 signatures, well short of the needed 430,000 valid signatures.
But supporters of the referendum, which was undertaken without a large financial backer, vowed to fight on, noting they only had 70 days to collect signatures.
"It is unheard of for a volunteer-only effort to find this kind of support, especially in a state as large as California," Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Family Impact and director of the campaign, said in a statement.
And they are not done. Having fallen short of the referendum drive, they are not looking to qualify an initiative to overturn SB 777.
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SB 777 Referendum
