Three political activists who worked on behalf of a 2005 initiative effort to limit state spending 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, national term limits leader and pro-initiative advocate, who was one of the three indicted. “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-defendants — 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 — have been dubbed “The Oklahoma 3.”

(continue reading…)

Paul Jacob has been the leading voice of the national term limits movement for the last 15 years, having been instrumental in organizing several record-setting national initiative drives. In 1992 and again in 1996, term limits was voted on in more states in a single election cycle than any other issue in the 100-year history of the voter initiative process.

(continue reading…)

Susan Johnson is the president of National Voter Outreach (NVO), a national petition drive management company. NVO is currently conducting a petition drive to allow Arkansas voters to establish a state lottery.

(continue reading…)

Richard Merrill “Rick” Carpenter is an Oklahoma citizen and political activist who helped organize the Oklahoma Stop Overspending Initiative in 2005 and 2006. Rick Carpenter was head of Oklahomans In Action, a citizen activist group, at the time of the petition drive.
(continue reading…)