Paul Jacob

Paul Jacob (1960 - ) is an activist, organizer, and advocate for legislative term limits, initiative and referendum rights, and limited government in the United States. He writes a weekly column for Townhall.com and his short radio commentary feature, "Common Sense," is syndicated by the Sam Adams Alliance on over 120 radio stations around the U.S. He has held positions with the Libertarian Party (United States), U.S. Term Limits, Americans for Limited Government, Citizens In Charge and the Sam Adams Foundation.

Political philosophy

Because Jacob emphasizes institutional and procedural reforms--most notable being legislative term limits--his libertarian philosophy appears more centrist than either Left-libertarian or rightist. Though often writing from a background of cultural conservatism, his frequent criticisms of what he regards as Republican Party "excesses" distances his writing from that of most other columnists usually defined as "on the right". Examples of Jacob's views can be read in his columns on Townhall.com, as well as in his "Common Sense" commentaries. Frequent targets of his commentary include Republicans known for their pork barrel spending, such as Senator Ted Stevens, and both Democrats and Republicans who support campaign spending regulations, such as Senators Russ Feingold and John McCain. Paul Jacob has repeatedly argued that the McCain-Feingold law, and all similar campaign finance reform measures, are clear violations of the First Amendment.

Draft resistance

Jacob first came to political prominence in the early 1980s as a draft registration resister. His crusade against forced military service and for the all-volunteer army was featured in "Rolling Stone" magazine [Greider, William: "Nothing about the Draft Makes Sense," 'Rolling Stone', September 30, 1982, 9, 10] . In 1985, after being convicted of violating the Selective Service Act, he served five and a half months in federal prison, longer than any American draft resister since the Vietnam War. During the trial, Congressman Ron Paul testified on his behalf. [Doherty, Brian, "Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement," Public Affairs, 2007, pages 510-513.]

Jacob's argument against the draft can be found in his brief essay titled "The Draft is Slavery," [ [http://www.pulpless.com/rainsamp/cadenzas.html#RED "The Draft is Slavery,"] an essay by Paul Jacob, stored on the [http://www.pulpless.com/ Pulpless.Com, Inc.] website.] originally published as one of several "afterwords" to J. Neil Schulman's science fiction novel "The Rainbow Cadenza".

Support for Legislative Term Limits

Primarily known as a leader of the term limits movement, Jacob ran U.S. Term Limits, the nation's most active term limits lobby, from its inception in 1992 until 1999, becoming the movement's leading voice. Jacob helped citizens in 23 states place limits on their congressional delegations, prompting columnist Robert Novak to call him "the most hated man in Washington."Fact|date=June 2007 But on May 221995, those state-imposed congressional term limits, encompassing nearly half the U.S. Congress, were struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of "U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton". Today, 15 state legislatures, 36 governors and thousands of local officials, including those in nine of the country's ten largest cities, are under term limits. Jacob held several positions with U.S. Term Limits (including national director, senior fellow, and president), until resigning his board membership in early 2007.

Rise in the Libertarian Party

Jacob served on the National Committee of the Libertarian Party and then in 1987 and 1988 as the party's national director. In 1988, he worked to put Ron Paul on the ballot for president as a Libertarian, winning ballot access in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam.

Citizens in Charge & Foundation

In 2001, Jacob started Citizens in Charge, a group dedicated to protecting the voter initiative process where it exists and expanding it to more states and localities. Between 2002 and 2004, CIC worked closely with Let Minnesota Vote in an unsuccessful effort to bring statewide initiative & referendum to Minnesota. CIC provided much of the funding for voter issue education in the state’s 2002 legislative elections, through direct mail, television ads and radio spots. In those elections, five incumbent state senators were defeated by pro-initiative challengers, but the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party retained control of the state senate and continued to block a vote of the people on statewide initiative. CIC also led a 2004 lobbying effort against restrictions on the initiative in Florida, working with the Florida Initiative League and later with Hands Off Florida. In 2005, Citizens in Charge was instrumental in blocking a number of proposed legislative restrictions to the initiative process in Nevada. Jacob serves as president of the organization. Jacob also founded the Citizens in Charge Foundation, which litigates to protect petition rights and provides education on the initiative and referendum process. He also serves as the group’s president.

The Sam Adams Alliance & Foundation

Jacob is a senior advisor at the Sam Adams Foundation, which produces his radio and Internet commentary program Common Sense.

2007 Indictment in Oklahoma

, or TaBOR. Among the paid petitioners used were some that had come to Oklahoma from other states to work on the drive. On October 2, 2007, Jacob was formally indicted in Oklahoma on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the state on the matter of hiring out-of-state petitioners. Jacob claims the petition's organizers had sought, and received, approval for this from the Oklahoma Secretary of State. [ [http://www.freepauljacob.com/2007/10/02/statement-of-paul-jacob/ "Statement of Paul Jacob"] , Free Paul Jacob website, October 2, 2007] The maximum fine for their alleged crime is $25,000, and the maximum sentence is ten years in prison. Jacob was indicted with two others in the case, and each pleaded not guilty. [ [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071003_1_A9_hThey33120 "Indictment Lists Three in TABOR Case"] , "Tulsa World", October 3, 2007] A website--FreePaulJacob.com--was put up in Jacob's defense. [ [http://www.freepauljacob.com/" Free Paul Jacob] — website]

References

External links

* [http://www.samadamsalliance.org/ The Sam Adams Alliance]
* [http://www.thisiscommonsense.com/ Common Sense with Paul Jacob]
* [http://www.citizensincharge.org/ Citizens In Charge]
* [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob Paul Jacob, Townhall columnist]
* [http://www.draftresistance.org/herotoday.php Hero of the Day, column by Steve Stephens]