By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The Oregon Secretary of State’s (SOS) office delivered some bad news to backers of controversial Initiative Petition 28, the anti-hunting/anti-ranching measure, when it was announced the first round of signature verifications failed.
KPTV News is reporting that Connor Radnovich, SOS office spokesperson, confirmed IP28 “did not qualify for the ballot based on the first sample of signatures.” The report cautioned, however, that IP28 is far from dead, because the signature verification process is moving to a larger sample.
Derek LeBlanc, president of the Oregon Gun Owners Action League (ORGOAL), told TheGunMag.com via private message, “Today, Oregon Gun Owners Action League (ORGOAL) is cautiously optimistic that IP28 will NOT meet the statutory requirements to advance to the November ballot. While there may be still time and we encourage all sportsmen, sportswomen, and Oregon gun owners to monitor this process very closely until we have an official update from the Oregon Secretary of State’s office. It is only then that we can rest assured.”
IP28 is a sweeping measure that would criminalize ranching, hunting, trapping, and other activities deemed to constitute cruelty to animals. It has alarmed Beaver State sportsmen and women, ranchers, trappers and national sportsmen’s organizations by even garnering far more signatures than required, but now the question is whether many of those signatures won’t qualify.
“Our gut feeling,” LeBlanc added, “is that the Oregon Secretary of State, Tobias Read will choose to play politics instead of honoring the referendum process. It is our belief that he will find some ‘mysterious’ reason for IP 28 to be disqualified from the November election as a way to protect the sitting Governor Tina Kotek.
“IP 28 is a radical and dangerous ballot initiative and will cause record voter turnout that has the very good potential to cost Tina Kotek her seat, as it should,” he observed. “We will keep everyone updated as this situation evolves.”
With such a measure on the ballot, some political observers are suggesting the turnout of conservative Oregon voters in November would be enough to crush the measure, and those same voters would cast their ballots against anti-gun Democrat Kotek in the process.
ORGOAL announced earlier in the week that it has become a sate affiliate of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the national grassroots gun rights organization based in neighboring Washington state. CCRKBA has been monitoring the progress of IP28 for several months.
